I saw the Omni Potent's flaming pioneers
Over the heavenly verge which turns toward life
Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth;
Forerunners of a divine multitude,
Out of the paths of the morning star they came
Into the little room of mortal life.
I saw them cross the twilight of an age,
The sun-eyed children of a marvelous dawn,
The great creators with wide brows of calm,
The massive barrier-breakers of the world,
And wrestlers with destiny in her lists of will,
The messengers of the Incommunicable,
The architects of Immortality.
Into the fallen human sphere they came,
Faces that wore the Immortals glory still,
Voices that communed still with the thoughts of God,
Bodies made beautiful by the Spirit's light,
Carrying the magic word, the mystic fire,
Carrying the Dionysan cup of joy,
Approaching eyes of a diviner man,
Lips chanting an unknown anthem of the soul,
Feet echoing in the corridors of Time.
High priests of wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss,
Discoveries of beauty's sunlit ways
And swimmers of Love's Laughing fiery floods
And dancers within rapture's golden doors.
Their tread one day shall change, the suffering earth
And justify the light on Natures' face.
Although Fate lingers in the high Beyond
And the work seems vain on which our heart's force was spent,
ALL shall be done for which our pain was borne.