The Souls’ Rising + 

See how the storm of life ascends + 

Up through the shadow of the world! + 

Beyond our gaze the line extends, + 

Like wreaths of vapour tempest-hurled! + 

Grasp tighter, brother, lest the storm + 

Should sweep us down from where we stand, + 

And we may catch some human form + 

We know, amongst the straining band. + 

See! see in yonder misty cloud + 

One whirlwind sweep, and we shall hear + 

The voice that waxes yet more loud + 

And louder still approaching near! + 

Tremble not, brother, fear not thou, + 

For yonder wild and mystic strain + 

Will bring before us strangely now + 

The visions of our youth again! + 

Listen! oh listen! + 

See how its eyeballs roll and glisten + 

With a wild and fearful stare + 

Upwards through the shining air, + 

Or backwards with averted look, + 

As a child were gazing at a book + 

Full of tales of fear and dread, + 

When the thick night-wind came hollow and dead. + 

Round about it, wavering and light. + 

As the moths flock round a candle at night, + 

A crowd of phantoms sheeted and dumb + 

Strain to its words as they shrilly come: + 

Brother, my brother, dost thou hear? + 

They pierce through the tumult sharp and clear! + 

“The rush of speed is on my soul, + 

My eyes are blind with things I see; + 

I cannot grasp the awful whole, + 

I cannot gird the mystery! + 

The mountains sweep like mist away; + 

The great sea shakes like flakes of fire; + 

The rush of things I cannot see + 

Is mounting upward higher and higher! + 

Oh! life was still and full of calm + 

In yonder spot of earthly ground, + 

But now it rolls a thunder-psalm, + 

Its voices drown my ear in sound! + 

Would God I were a child again + 

To nurse the seeds of faith and power; + 

I might have clasped in wisdom then + 

A wing to beat this awful hour! + 

The dullest things would take my marks⁠— + 

They took my marks like drifted snow⁠— + 

God! how the footsteps rise in sparks, + 

Rise like myself and onward go! + 

Have pity, O ye driving things + 

That once like me had human form! + 

For I am driven for lack of wings + 

A shreddy cloud before the storm!” + 

How its words went through me then, + 

Like a long forgotten pang, + 

Till the storm’s embrace again + 

Swept it far with sudden clang!⁠— + 

Ah, methinks I see it still! + 

Let us follow it, my brother, + 

Keeping close to one another, + 

Blessing God for might of will! + 

Closer, closer, side by side! + 

Ours are wings that deftly glide + 

Upwards, downwards, and crosswise + 

Flashing past our ears and eyes, + 

Splitting up the comet-tracks + 

With a whirlwind at our backs! + 

How the sky is blackening! + 

Yet the race is never slackening; + 

Swift, continual, and strong, + 

Streams the torrent slope along, + 

Like a tidal surge of faces + 

Molten into one despair; + 

Each the other now displaces, + 

A continual whirl of spaces; + 

Ah, my fainting eyesight reels + 

As I strive in vain to stare + 

On a thousand turning wheels + 

Dimly in the gloom descending, + 

Faces with each other blending!⁠— + 

Let us beat the vapours back, + 

We are yet upon his track. + 

Didst thou see a spirit halt + 

Upright on a cloudy peak, + 

As the lightning’s horrid fault + 

Smote a gash into the cheek + 

Of the grinning thunder-cloud + 

Which doth still besiege and crowd + 

Upward from the nether pits + 

Where the monster Chaos sits, + 

Building o’er the fleeing rack + 

Roofs of thunder long and black? + 

Yes, I see it! I will shout + 

Till I stop the horrid rout. + 

Ho, ho! spirit-phantom, tell + 

Is thy path to heaven or hell? + 

We would hear thee yet again, + 

What thy standing amongst men, + 

What thy former history, + 

And thy hope of things to be! + 

Wisdom still we gain from hearing: + 

We would know, we would know + 

Whither thou art steering⁠— + 

Unto weal or woe! + 

Ah, I cannot hear it speaking! + 

Yet it seems as it were seeking + 

Through our eyes our souls to reach + 

With a quaint mysterious speech, + 

As with stretched and crossing palms + 

One were tracing diagrams + 

On the ebbing of the beach, + 

Till with wild unmeasured dance + 

All the tiptoe waves advance, + 

Seize him by the shoulder, cover, + 

Turn him up and toss him over: + 

He is vanished from our sight, + 

Nothing mars the quiet night + 

Save a speck of gloom afar + 

Like the ruin of a star! + 

Brother, streams it ever so, + 

Such a torrent tide of woe? + 

Ah, I know not; let us haste + 

Upwards from this dreary waste, + 

Up to where like music flowing + 

Gentler feet are ever going, + 

Streams of life encircling run + 

Round about the spirit-sun! + 

Up beyond the storm and rush + 

With our lesson let us rise! + 

Lo, the morning’s golden flush + 

Meets us midway in the skies! + 

Perished all the dream and strife! + 

Death is swallowed up of Life! + 