| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 80. Worship |
| By Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) |
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| THIS is he, who, felled by foes, | |
| Sprung harmless up, refreshed by blows | |
| He to captivity was sold, | |
| But him no prison-bars would hold: | |
| Though they sealed him in a rock, | 5 |
| Mountain chains he can unlock: | |
| Thrown to lions for their meat, | |
| The crouching lion kissed his feet: | |
| Bound to the stake, no flames appalled, | |
| But arched o’er him an honouring vault. | 10 |
| This is he men miscall Fate, | |
| Threading dark ways, arriving late, | |
| But ever coming in time to crown | |
| The truth, and hurl wrong-doers down. | |
| He is the oldest, and best known, | 15 |
| More near than aught thou call’st thy own, | |
| Yet, greeted in another’s eyes, | |
| Disconcerts with glad surprise. | |
| This is Jove, who, deaf to prayers, | |
| Floods with blessings unawares. | 20 |
| Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line | |
| Severing rightly his from thine, | |
| Which is human, which divine. | |
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