| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 286. The Continuing City |
| By Laurence Housman (b. 1865) |
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| GOD, who made man out of dust, | |
| Willed him to be | |
| Not to known ends, but to trust | |
| His decree. | |
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| This is our city, a soul | 5 |
| Walled within clay; | |
| Separate hearts of one whole, | |
| Bound we obey. | |
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| All that He meant us to be, | |
| Could we discern,— | 10 |
| Life had no meaning,—or we | |
| Had not to learn. | |
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| Thou, beloved, doubt not the truth | |
| Eyesight makes dim! | |
| All life, to age from youth, | 15 |
| Brings us to Him: | |
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| Him Whom thou hast not seen, | |
| Canst not yet know: | |
| Human hearts stand between, | |
| His to foreshow. | 20 |
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| Couldst thou possess thine own, | |
| That were the key; | |
| He, to Whom hearts are known, | |
| Keeps it from thee. | |
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| Thou all thy days must live, | 25 |
| Thyself the quest; | |
| Plucking the heart to give | |
| From thine own breast. | |
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| Till thou, from other eyes, | |
| At kindred calls, | 30 |
| Seest thine own towers arise, | |
| And thine own walls,— | |
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| Where, conquering the wide air, | |
| Peopling its waste, | |
| Citadels everywhere | 35 |
| Like stars stand based: | |
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| Losing thy soul, thy soul | |
| Again to find; | |
| Rendering toward that goal | |
| Thy separate mind. | 40 |
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