The Voice of the Soul



In Youth, when through our veins runs fast
   The bright red stream of life,
The Soul’s Voice is a trumpet-blast
   That calls us to the strife.
The Spirit spurns its prison-bars,
   And feels with force endued
To scale the ramparts of the stars
   And storm Infinitude.

Youth passes; like a dungeon grows
   The Spirit’s house of clay:
The voice that once in music rose
   In murmurs dies away.

But in the day when sickness sore
   Smites on the body’s walls,
The Soul’s Voice through the breach once more
   Like to a trumpet calls.

Well shall it be with him who heeds
   The mystic summons then!
His after-life with loving deeds
   Shall blossom amongst men.

He shall have gifts—the gift that feels
   The germ within the clod,
And hears the whirring of the wheels
   That turn the mills of God!

The gift that sees with glance profound
   The secret soul of things,
And in the silence hears the sound
   Of vast and viewless wings!

The veil of Isis sevenfold
   To him as gauze shall be,
Wherethrough, clear-eyed, he shall behold
   The Ancient Mystery.

He shall do battle for the True,
   Defend till death the Right,
With Shoes of Swiftness Wrong pursue,
   With Sword of Sharpness smite.

And, dying, he shall haply hear,
   Like golden trumpets blown
For joy, far voices sweet and clear—
   Soul-voices like his own.

So welcomed may he join the Throng
   Upon the Shining Shore,
As one who, after wandering long,
   Returneth home once more!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:14 min read
32

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCXCA DEDE FGFG HIHI JAJX KLKL MNMN OXOA XPXP QFQF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,434
Words 249
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Victor James Daley

Victor James William Patrick Daley was an Australian poet. more…

All Victor James Daley poems | Victor James Daley Books

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