Song of the Mystic
I walk down the Valley of Silence -- Down the dim, voiceless valley
-- alone! And I hear not the fall of a footstep Around me, save God\'s and
my own; And the hush of my heart is as holy As hovers where angels
have flown!
Long ago was I weary of voices Whose music my heart could not
win; Long ago was I weary of noises That fretted my soul with their din;
Long ago was I weary of places Where I met but the human -- and sin.
I walked in the world with the worldly; I craved what the world
never gave; And I said: "In the world each Ideal, That shines like a star
on life\'s wave, Is wrecked on the shores of the Real, And sleeps like a
dream in a grave."
And still did I pine for the Perfect, And still found the False with the
True; I sought \'mid the Human for Heaven, But caught a mere glimpse
of its Blue: And I wept when the clouds of the Mortal Veiled even that
glimpse from my view.
And I toiled on, heart-tired, of the Human, And I moaned \'mid the
mazes of men, Till I knelt, long ago, at an altar And I heard a voice call
me. Since then I walk down the Valley of Silence That lies far beyond
mortal ken.
Do you ask what I found in the Valley? \'Tis my Trysting Place with
the Divine. And I fell at the feet of the Holy, And above me a voice said:
"Be mine." And there arose from the depths of my spirit An echo -- "My
heart shall be Thine."
Do you ask how I live in the Valley? I weep -- and I dream -- and I
pray. But my tears are as sweet as the dewdrops That fall on the roses in
May; And my prayer, like a perfume from censers, Ascendeth to God
night and day.
In the hush of the Valley of Silence I dream all the songs that I sing;
And the music floats down the dim Valley, Till each finds a word for a
wing, That to hearts, like the Dove of the Deluge, A message of Peace
they may bring.