VERSES NEW AND OLD.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 205, 23 May 1908, Page 12

VERSES NEW AND OLD.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS. . The winter sunset fronts the North .. . , , .The light deserts the tjuiot sky. . . '. .Prom their, far gates how nilently - The stars [of evening tremble forth! ■ Timo, to thy sight what peace thoy share : On Night's inviolable Breast! Remote in "solitudes'of rest,. Afar from human change or care. Eternity, unto thine eyos In war's unrest tlloir legions surge, . Foam of the cosmic tides that urge ■ The'battle of contending skies, The war whose waves of onslaught, met Where night's abysses storm' afar, Break on the high, tremendous-bar Athwart .that central ocean set— 'From.soas whose cyclic ebb and sweep, ' [ • .Uri?eeii' ; to/Life's oblivious hours,, ■ Are ostent of the changeless Pow'rs That hold dominion'of the Deep. •Oarmies of eternal night, How; flame your guidons on the dark! Silent we turn from:Timo to hark ;!What [final Orders , sway .your might/ ; ; Cold from. colossal, ramparts gleam, . At their insuperable .posts, .[ 1 ! ■ The soven princcs.of,-the hosts ''..:[; Who guard tho holy North supremo; • . Who watch: the phalanxes remote That, gathered iir opposing skies, ■ Far .011 the southern'wastes" arise, Marshalled by flaming Fomalhaut. Altair, what captains compass thee? : ■ -.What'foes, Aldebaran, are .thine?.' ' ' , [.•Rcd.with what Wood: of .wars divine Glows-that immortal panoply? ■ : What music from l Cfapella' runs? - [.' How hold the Pleiades their bond?. .• >How storms the hiddenwar beyond 1 Orion's dreadful sword of suns? Whon, on what hostile firmament, . Shall stars unnamed contend our gyre; ,' ' ['Mid. councils.of Bootes'.fire, Or night '.of Vega's fury spent?,.. ... What tidings' of .the heavenly, fray.? [, These,'.lis:;our'-'sages nightward: turn ■..' .To .gazp: within 'thejsulfs.,where burn . The helms lof, that eublime array: Splendours of'elemental strife'; . vSmit'suns that.startle back tho gloom; . : New light - whoso tale. of ..stellar r doom • ■ Fares-to uncomprehending life; '; .Profounds of fire whose maelstroms froth 1 To gathered armies ef oiTenso; . . ..Cohorts umveariable, immense,' . .. ' And bulks ; .wherewith the Dark is wroth;. Unserves: and .urgencies';of light- , . That flame .upon the battle's path, ; ':And/allied'Suns't'hat..brave the wrath ' Of system's.'leagued' athwart the night; .. .Menace of'silent .'ranks, that sweep ' . TJr.to' irrevocable. wars, v '''■ And onset of titanic cars ■ .In Armageddoss of the Deep! / 0 night,' whiit 1 legions serve thy/wars!. lo! thy'terrifio'battle-line— •" : The rayless ; bulk, tho; blazing: Sign,: ' The leagued, infinity...of stars! 1 Eemote .they: burn, whose dread array .. Glows from the.dark,a.dust of.fire; ■ : Unheard; the' storm of .Eigel's ire, A grain of; light Ar'cturus' day. Unheard their antiphon of death '.' ,•[ Who gleam Capella's cosmic "foes; ,' Unseen the war whose, causal throes. , Perturb '. gigantic;: Algol's' breath— 'Whom from/afar we iriete and name

Ere Light-and Life'their doom fulfil,. : T 7; Spawn. of 'tho Power whose eons still Tho suns of-Taurus aTmed.with flame. :.; What sound shall pass tho gulfs where,-groan Their sullen axles on the night ? • - What thunder from.the.strands'of light ', .■^."jWherice^Yega''glares on; ,worlds . unknown ? -': 0 Deep Those very silence stuns • : . *. -™:; Whore -Light is powerless. to - illume • ' i'; ? : | .'-Lo'st: ; in' immensities 'of gloom' ■ ; ' That dwarf to motes the flaring suns. • 0 Night ';where-/Time and.Sorrow cease! Eternal' inagmtudo of dark ' ,j ' . . . : Wherein Aldebaran drifts a- spark, • ; And Sirius' is hushed-to peace! . . 0 Tides' that foam on. strands untrod, FromViSfjas' in' overlasting !-'fe 1 To light .where Life looks forth', on Time, > 'And' Pain, unanswered,-".-questions God! : ■'.v. 1 ; ; -/i Georgo Sterling. - WORDSWORTH AN THED SUB- • CONSCIOUS SELF. ':' It is a fascinating and perhaps - riot wholly fruitless: subject, of speculation how the great thinkers of bygone days would have viewed the " ! mi\ny inventions " of their: successors. iWhat would Newton have thought- of- the Nasmyth ■ of. wireless,-telc-r jgraphy, Wordsworth ■ of• tho doctrine of itho sub-conscious self t. This last inquiry is riot devoid of actuality; _ for /it is .'.clear . tli&t JWordswortli . was 1 feeling ' after that subjective ; . self whoso - existence is now generally .admitted by psychologists,and of which most of us, at one time 'or other, are dimly made awaro. . -v- • - ' -..

. This' mysterious part of his being was; to •tho poet ; a'source of wonder and: delight— . but also of perplexity.' So distrustful was ■ ho, _on occasion, of what l most men'doem'objective? realities, so", conscious of : an exisienco remote from ; theirs, that ho •. would .- lay. ' hishand.' on some material '.'object,') a gate, . for example, to convince •• himself :: that > .'lie was ,- still . in ihe land; of sensual 'perception. Although .in some inoods—and these not unreficct-cd-in his-verso-caiman' of practical and almost proeaic nature, in others lie;possessed in amplo what ho calls . " tho visionary i . power." He repeatedly assorts his posses- /. ' teion of this gift. Thus lie claims, in. " The Prelude," not . L V ; ■ "To lack that first great gift, the Vital soul." .'Tho first great gift, bo it observed; agreater •V gift, than reason. It:does not appear—-and this is iu : accordance .with the principles of -quietism—-that iariy process of, reasoning went to tho inducing of •' f ■ ' . ' " That sorene'and blessed mood In which tho burthen of tho mysterjr, - / In which tho'heavy and tho weary Sveight Of all 'this unintelligible world . . • Is lightened." ■ ' Wo; to that mood, he says. . "Tho affections gently lead us on." £A.s to reason, it is tho function of the brain; and if,' at. such ,times, . "The breath of this'corporeal, frame . Andeveii the motion of our Human blood Almost 'suspended, wo are' laid asleep. , In body, and become a. living soul;" • . it must bo inferrod that the brain also is in*, •aestate of suspended animation._ "And that happy trance' which he supposes is not, to bo Bure, the sleep, of blank unconsciousness, nor the sleep in -.which we are vexed or amused : by trivial imaginations; but a state wherein "With an eye made quiet by tho power . Of harmony, and the deep pbwor of joy, ; We see into tho life of things." Tho body sleeps, in short; tho physical sight is passive; but tho soul's eye awakens, and " sec 3 into the life of things." _■ j ; ; Suppose- a grown man reading this pas--sago, the well-known "Lines Composed near . ' Tintorn .Abbey," for tho first tithe, and arv... ,rivod at this assertion, will lie not bo filled with eager anticipation Will he not look : for the veil to be lfted, " the burthen of the jnystery' - eased,' '' the heavy and the weary [-weight" lightened ? Disappointment'in; that -- case awaits; him. , - Tho poet does not oiake us participants of his vision. Tho probability ' is that: lie-could 'not.-Elsewhere (in "The Prclud6 ") he practically admits his inability. ; He speaks of' the soul as, after such moments, . '* Eemembering how she felt,, but what she felt, E»momberiiig not." ' ' ' ' Yet thin mysterious insight is not, _ he nsaurw u», to be slighted because, it is fleeting ; f«r tbe soul, by meaiis of it, " Retains an obscure sense,"' Of possible sublimity, 'whereto With growing faculties she doth aspire. Hence it is a part of the soul's eduoation., The vision passes, but. it leaves a solace and a strengthening. So, too, was it, in the ' Arabian-story translated by Sir Edwin Arnold, with the dervish ■ . " Who woke from vision of the love 'divine." "When lie tried to impart to his fellows that which ha had e«sn, he found himself unable. He had meant to bring them a wealth of . roses from the holy gardon ; but, overpowered by, their scent, "I let tho border of my mantle fall— The roses slipped! I bring ye none at all."

So also, may it not havo beon with St. Paul, when "caught up into tho third heaven . . . ho hoard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter"?- All such experiences romind us of that flno saying, that to man is given'tho pursuit of truth, but that the possession of it is ■ reserved for its Author. Wordsworth's meaning, at anyrate, is clear. . Ho desires his fellow-men to seek for themselves " tho visionary power," to cultivate (ho might havo said) their souls. . . Now, it is contended certain thinkers that-tho sub-conscious solf.is tho scat of the 50u1,.-if not .identical with it. This entity, moreover,. is ! belioved to answer as readily to suggestion as does the magnetic needle to tho polo. The source of sucli suggestion may bo tangible or tho rovorse. In Wordsworth's caso, tho controlling force was the beauty of external nature, the fells, lakes, woods, arid meadows which ho loved so well,'."' It ..was,, ho_ distinctly asserts, the contemplation .of those .". beauteous 'forms" of naturo ithat» brought about the visionary mood. It is'another reason for us—if we need ;one —to foster our love of nature, that thence wo may, as ho did,

''Haveglimpses which can 1.'.0k0 lis less forlorn." There remains to be noted a function of " tho vital soul " (or tho sub-conscious solf?) to which the poet, himself attached the most supremo' importaftcio, its ability to assuro mankind,' 1 especially, in youth, of'a higher, existence formerly and elsewhere enjoyed. Whothor ' Wordsworth would :havo himself ovolvod tho doctrine of Recollection if Plato had not trodden that path : before him, I cannot attempt to determine. At least ho has popularised Plato's theory;,at least hb has \.embodiod ; it in ono ,of "tho finest poems written iu our tongue. That poem is, of course, tlio great ode,: ''Intimations : .of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.'.' 'Theie wo behold the pilgrim of humanity; 1 striving amid the interferences of sense to, rccall, by means of his subconscious solf, . " '• ) . ."Tho glories he hath-known, . , And that Imperial Palace whence he came." Many sober people will pronounce this theory merely fanciful, if beautiful. Still, it was Plato!#, it was Wordsworth's. Wo may not go all the way with the,poet; we may think that his premises arc not strong enough to boar tho weight, of his conclusion. But, if we have in our composition anything of the visionary—and who, looking back upon his past years, can say that he sees in them no ono hour of mystery, no single phase of feeling which does not fall outsido the domain of the senses and of reason wc must; understand, we shall perhaps • be, grateful for, his insistence.on " ' "Those obstinate questionings. Of sense and outward, things, . Fallings frjm-us, vanisiiings;' . Blank misgivings of a-'creature' Moving-'about: in worlds riot realised,. ' High instincts before' which our mortal naturo • . ' ! . Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised.". These were the things for which tho poet thanked . his,, Maker, these wero to . him a. positive assurance, (though not the only ono) of immortality,'y- ■; . But if wo have lived one life before this present ono, an objector may say, why; not sovcral? And why not others, perhaps many others,-when this present one is over? There are modern Pythagoreans 'who sound this adventurous note, and call the sub-conscious self as witness; just as Wordsworth in support of. his more modest creed, invoked "the vital 'soul."' .' It is impossible: to prove or disprove either theory. Wo may formally assent to neither, yet find something to eleva,to in both. And as to differences in tenniiidlogy, they are, after all, of secondary moiiient.- It does not so much 'matter what ,wo call our soul — what is important is, not\ to forget. that wo possess ono.—H. C. Minchiii, in'the' " Glasgow Herald." \