| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 253. The Clearer Self |
| By Archibald Lampman (1861–1899) |
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| BEFORE me grew the human soul, | |
| And after I am dead and gone, | |
| Through grades of effort and control | |
| The marvellous work shall still go on. | |
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| Each mortal in his little span | 5 |
| Hath only lived, if he have shown | |
| What greatness there can be in man | |
| Above the measured and the known; | |
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| How through the ancient layers of night, | |
| In gradual victory secure, | 10 |
| Grows ever with increasing light | |
| The Energy serene and pure: | |
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| The Soul that from a monstrous past, | |
| From age to age, from hour to hour, | |
| Feels upward to some height at last | 15 |
| Of unimagined grace and power. | |
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| Though yet the sacred fire be dull, | |
| In folds of thwarting matter furled, | |
| Ere death be nigh, while life is full, | |
| O Master Spirit of the world, | 20 |
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| Grant me to know, to seek, to find, | |
| In some small measure though it be, | |
| Emerging from the waste and blind, | |
| The clearer self, the grander me! | |
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