| WHEN all the shores of knowledge fade | |
| Beyond the realms of night and day, | |
| When the quick stir of thought is stayed | |
| And, as a dream of yesterday, | |
| The bonds of striving fall away: | 5 |
| There dawns sometimes a point of fire | |
| Burning the utter dark, that may | |
| Fulfil our desperate desire. | |
| |
| Into the darkness, unafraid, | |
| Wherein soft hands of silence lay | 10 |
| Their veil of peace upon the blade | |
| Of too bright thought, we take our way. | |
| In changing of desire we pay | |
| Whatever price the gods require, | |
| Knowing the end is theirs—and they | 15 |
| Fulfil our desperate desire. | |
| |
| Upon the stillness we have made | |
| Between our working and our play | |
| A deeper stillness yet is laid. | |
| Like some white bird above the sway | 20 |
| Of summer waves within the bay | |
| Peace lights upon us ere we tire, | |
| And does (yet how, we cannot say) | |
| Fulfil our desperate desire. | |
| |
Envoi
God of the world, to Whom we pray, | 25 |
| Thou Inmost God to Whom aspire | |
| All hopes that Thou wilt not betray— | |
| Fulfil our desperate desire! | |
