PRE-EXISTENCE
PRE-EXISTENCE
While sauntering through the crowded streetSome half-remembered face I meet,Albeit upon no mortal shoreThat face, methinks, hath smiled before.Lost in a gay and festal throngI tremble at some tender songSet to an air whose golden barsI must have heard in other stars.In sacred aisles I pause to shareThe blessings of a priestly prayer,When the whole scene which greets mine eyesIn some strange mode I recognize,As one whose every mystic partHad been prefigured in my heart.At sunset as I calmly standA stranger on an alien strand,Familiar as my childhood’s homeSeems the long stretch of wave and foam.A ship sails toward me o’er the bayAnd what she comes to do and sayI can foretell. A prescient loreSprings from some life outlived of yore.O swift, instructive, startling gleamsOf deep soul-knowledge; not as dreamsFor aye ye vaguely dawn and die,But oft with lightning certaintyPierce through the dark, oblivious brainTo make old thoughts and memories plain:Thoughts which perchance must travel backAcross the wide bewildering trackOf countless eons; memories farHigh reaching as yon palled star,Unknown, scarce seen, whose flickering graceFaints on the outmost rings of space.Paul Hamilton Hayne.
While sauntering through the crowded streetSome half-remembered face I meet,Albeit upon no mortal shoreThat face, methinks, hath smiled before.Lost in a gay and festal throngI tremble at some tender songSet to an air whose golden barsI must have heard in other stars.In sacred aisles I pause to shareThe blessings of a priestly prayer,When the whole scene which greets mine eyesIn some strange mode I recognize,As one whose every mystic partHad been prefigured in my heart.At sunset as I calmly standA stranger on an alien strand,Familiar as my childhood’s homeSeems the long stretch of wave and foam.A ship sails toward me o’er the bayAnd what she comes to do and sayI can foretell. A prescient loreSprings from some life outlived of yore.O swift, instructive, startling gleamsOf deep soul-knowledge; not as dreamsFor aye ye vaguely dawn and die,But oft with lightning certaintyPierce through the dark, oblivious brainTo make old thoughts and memories plain:Thoughts which perchance must travel backAcross the wide bewildering trackOf countless eons; memories farHigh reaching as yon palled star,Unknown, scarce seen, whose flickering graceFaints on the outmost rings of space.Paul Hamilton Hayne.
While sauntering through the crowded streetSome half-remembered face I meet,Albeit upon no mortal shoreThat face, methinks, hath smiled before.Lost in a gay and festal throngI tremble at some tender songSet to an air whose golden barsI must have heard in other stars.In sacred aisles I pause to shareThe blessings of a priestly prayer,When the whole scene which greets mine eyesIn some strange mode I recognize,As one whose every mystic partHad been prefigured in my heart.At sunset as I calmly standA stranger on an alien strand,Familiar as my childhood’s homeSeems the long stretch of wave and foam.A ship sails toward me o’er the bayAnd what she comes to do and sayI can foretell. A prescient loreSprings from some life outlived of yore.O swift, instructive, startling gleamsOf deep soul-knowledge; not as dreamsFor aye ye vaguely dawn and die,But oft with lightning certaintyPierce through the dark, oblivious brainTo make old thoughts and memories plain:Thoughts which perchance must travel backAcross the wide bewildering trackOf countless eons; memories farHigh reaching as yon palled star,Unknown, scarce seen, whose flickering graceFaints on the outmost rings of space.Paul Hamilton Hayne.
While sauntering through the crowded street
Some half-remembered face I meet,
Albeit upon no mortal shore
That face, methinks, hath smiled before.
Lost in a gay and festal throng
I tremble at some tender song
Set to an air whose golden bars
I must have heard in other stars.
In sacred aisles I pause to share
The blessings of a priestly prayer,
When the whole scene which greets mine eyes
In some strange mode I recognize,
As one whose every mystic part
Had been prefigured in my heart.
At sunset as I calmly stand
A stranger on an alien strand,
Familiar as my childhood’s home
Seems the long stretch of wave and foam.
A ship sails toward me o’er the bay
And what she comes to do and say
I can foretell. A prescient lore
Springs from some life outlived of yore.
O swift, instructive, startling gleams
Of deep soul-knowledge; not as dreams
For aye ye vaguely dawn and die,
But oft with lightning certainty
Pierce through the dark, oblivious brain
To make old thoughts and memories plain:
Thoughts which perchance must travel back
Across the wide bewildering track
Of countless eons; memories far
High reaching as yon palled star,
Unknown, scarce seen, whose flickering grace
Faints on the outmost rings of space.
Paul Hamilton Hayne.