Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-02-04
THE PRAYER OF AGASSIZ,

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On the Isle OF Penikese.
Ringed about by sapphire seas,
Famed by breezes soft and cool,
Stood the Master with his school.
Over sale that not in vain
Wooed the west winds steady train,
Line of coast that low and far
Stretched its untlulating bar,
Wings aslant along the rim
OF the waves they stopped to skim,
Rock and isle and glistening bay,
Feh the beautiful white day.
SAID the Master to the youth:
1--WE have come in search of truth,
Trying with uncertain key
Door by door of mystery:
We are reaching, through his laws,
To the garmenth hem of Cause,
Him. the endless, unb. gun,
The Unnamable, the One,
Light orall our light the Source,
Life of life, and Force of force,
AS with fingers of the blind
We are cropping here to find
What the hieroglyphics mean
OF the Unseen in the seen,'
What the Thought which underlies
Natufs's masking and disguise,
What is iC that hides beneath
Slight and bloom and birth and death,
By past effoI tsa unvailing
Doubt and error, loss and falling,
Ofour weakness made aware,
On the threshold of our task
Let us light and guidance ask,
Let us pause in silent praverl
Then the Master in his place
Bowed his head a little space
And the leaves by soft airs stirred,
Lapse of wave and cry of bird
Lett the solemn hush unbroken
OF that wordless prayer unspoken,
While its wish, on earth unsaid,
Rose to heaven interpreted.
AS, in life's best hours, we hear
BY the spirit finer ear
HIS low voice within us, thus
The AllFather hcareth us
And His holy ear we pain
With our noisy words and vain.
Not for HIM our violence
Slormlng at the aates OF sense,
His The primal language, His
I he eternal silences
Even the careless heart was moved,
And the dOubtlng gave assent,
With gesture reverent,
To he Master we'll beloved.
As lhIn misls are gloliGei
by the light they cannot hide,
All who sazed upon him saw,
Through It's veil of tender awe,
How his face was still uplit,
BY the old sweet look of 1t,
Hopeful tru,tiul, lull OF cheer,
And the love that casts out fear.
Who the secret may declare
OF that brief, unuttered prayer:
DID the sllade b,iJie him come
OF III inevitable doom,
OF the end of earth so near,
And Eternity : new year?
In the lap of she terns seas
Rests the Isle of Penikese;
But the loId of the domain
Comes not to his own again.
Where the eyes that follow iau,>
On a vaStcr sea his sail
Drifts beyond our beck and hail
Other lips within it, bound
Shall the Ia : of lif- eXpOund:
Other ewes from rock AMI she'll
Read the worlds Old riddles well:
But when breezes light and bland
Blow from summers bloSsomed land,
When the air Is glad with wings
And the bhthe song sparrow sings,
Many an eye with his stIll face
Shall the living ones displace,
Many AN ear the word shall seek
He alone could itly speak.
And one name forever more
Shall be tered DER ami DER
BY the waves that kiss the shore,
BY the cuilew's whistle sent
Down the cool. sea-scented air:
In all voices known to her
Nature her own worshIpper,
Half in triumph, half lament.
Thuher love shall fearful turn,
Friendship pause uncovered there,
And the wisest reverence learn
From the Masters 81 ent prayer.