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 Copyright IQIO 
 
 by 
 
 Amelia Woodward Truesdell 
 
 Printed by 
 
 The Stanley-Taylor Company 
 
 San Francisco 
 
^ Zbt &oul'S fcutimpat 
 
O Pars, awake! The humming-bird's 
 
 a-wing; 
 Still thrills the nightingale's sweet 
 
 welcoming. 
 Lo, from the hills — the Spring, her hair 
 
 snow-splashed! 
 Rose gardens burst to zvildest 
 
 blossoming. 
 
 But night ozuls hoot around Persepolis; 
 Where jeweled feet have trod, the 
 
 serpents hiss; 
 To these dead halls there comes no 
 
 Springtime bliss: 
 My time-old search for truth is but as 
 
 this. 
 
 This quest sung he who took the Vine 
 
 to Spouse; 
 Nay Pars, why from thy thousand 
 
 dreams arouse? 
 If dark thine ancient doors, where 
 
 dwells the light ? 
 In Omar's harp, why wake despair's 
 
 carouse? 
 
* ' ». 
 
 Wbt feour* Eulmtpat 
 
 Part I 
 
 Of him who walked a thousand years 
 
 ago 
 In Persian vales, and studied human woe 
 And the great Ruler's scheme to man, I 
 
 read 
 And wondered if aught more to-day we 
 
 know; 
 
 Aught more, life's puzzle-riddle solve 
 
 than he; 
 The Whence, the Why, the Whither, and 
 
 To-Be. 
 We still are groping for the Great 
 
 Reply ; 
 Through veils and forms, O God, we 
 
 search for Thee. 
 
II 
 
 He taught beneath the rose-trees of Iran, 
 This poet, seer, philosopher; this man 
 Who spared not all his learning's 
 
 treasure trove. 
 But vain his wisdom of the star-writ 
 
 plan! 
 
 Still would the multitude, like driven 
 
 swine, 
 On superstition feed, and call it wine 
 Of life, though bitter with the creeds 
 
 of men ; 
 For sleek Tradition cried, "A draught 
 
 divine!'' 
 
 Ill 
 
 Tradition ! Serpent-born at Eden's gate, 
 Still deifying fetish, faith, and fate; 
 On altars strange, his false lights 
 
 burning yet, 
 Still blind men's eyes unto their high 
 
 estate. 
 
Tradition ! Keeper of the deadly keys 
 Where souls are locked in darkness, fed 
 
 on lees 
 Of legends steeped in dreams, dank 
 
 cloister weeds : 
 O God, how could'st Thou look and 
 
 suffer these? 
 
 IV 
 
 From wading in the muck of daily care, 
 From 'midst the ashes of dead hopes' 
 
 despair, 
 Our souls still wait, with long endurance 
 
 dull, 
 And lifting helpless hands cry "Master, 
 
 where ? " 
 
 "A score of centuries since Jesus died, 
 And Sin our daily comrade still?" we 
 
 cried. 
 His life! And could it be in vain? 
 
 Then weep, 
 Weep on thou mother of the Crucified! 
 
I loved the high Ideal I called the Lord; 
 I worshiped at that shrine with heart's 
 
 accord. 
 Athwart the altar trailed a serpent Doubt, 
 And left envenomed there the name of 
 
 God. 
 
 With the Almighty would you make a 
 
 trade, 
 As with a huckster by the road-side 
 
 paid? 
 So much salvation for so much shed 
 
 blood, 
 And thus your own just penalty evade? 
 
 The soul revolts at such a sacrifice, 
 Such banal temporizing with a vice; 
 The sweetest life the world has ever 
 
 known 
 Is lost to earth for me — unworth the 
 
 price? 
 
Who then shall weigh the thing we call 
 
 a sin? 
 For ages God mayhap to man has been 
 More lenient than His sons. He knows 
 
 so well 
 How weak He made him from without, 
 
 — within. 
 
 VI 
 
 All consecration knows the scourge: the 
 
 scorn 
 Of words which cuts the heart as did 
 
 the thorn 
 The Master's brow; and through a 
 
 dolorous way- 
 It mounts its calvary of crosses borne. 
 
 Vicarious ever is earth's pain; that pain, 
 The life-sweat of one body's loss or 
 
 gain. 
 None stands alone. Each hapless child 
 
 of sin 
 Is linked to me. See that 'tis not in 
 
 vain. 
 
VII 
 
 From Ark of the old faith my soul went 
 
 out. 
 Philosophy she skimmed, that sea of 
 
 doubt, — 
 But eddying circles in a darkening 
 
 whirl, 
 Maelstrom of words ! It was a sorry 
 
 bout. 
 
 Where ancient Nilus and the Indus 
 
 taught ; 
 Confucius with his measured wisdom 
 
 wrought, — 
 No foot-stay there, no olive-branch I 
 
 found ; 
 But wreckage of a flood of surging 
 
 thought. 
 
 Through mosque and Buddhist temple, 
 
 silence-shod, 
 To fires of old Iran and budding rod 
 Of Aaron, back the devious way I trod; 
 And lo! I found me many a Sphinx-like 
 
 god. 
 
 6 
 
But all their lips in silence were and 
 
 scorn, 
 At my poor search through shrines 
 
 where ages gone 
 Had left their manual of a bootless 
 
 quest : 
 For them, no star of some new faith 
 
 unborn ! 
 
 Altars and tombs showed man in tragic 
 
 fray 
 Of creeds, but still the slave of 
 
 yesterday ; 
 His dread of change, slow death unto 
 
 the faiths. 
 Better a red-robed charlatan at play! 
 
 VIII 
 
 And still the Potter's wheel is turned by 
 
 Fate: 
 He tosses out our shards of love and 
 
 hate 
 As whirls the clay about. We wonder why 
 We hold such scraps and shreds for our 
 
 estate. 
 
rrr\ 
 
 Sharp-edged tools within an infant's hand ! 
 These passions which we did not 
 
 understand 
 Surprised us by their mastery. Then who 
 Had right for us, such dangers to 
 
 command ? 
 
 Did Cain, that life was sacred 
 
 comprehend ? 
 Then why distraught when he, without a 
 
 friend, 
 Went forth? Did Judas know his kiss 
 
 of death 
 Would mark for him, of heaven and 
 
 earth the end? 
 
 IX 
 
 For Truth I searched a hundred seas 
 and Jands ; 
 
 I heard his call and ran with 
 outstretched hands; 
 
 But when I thought I had his foot- 
 steps traced, 
 
 He just had gone to walk on other 
 strands. 
 
 8 
 
All up and down the streets and 
 
 country roads, 
 I asked for him. Men pointed to the 
 
 loads 
 Upon their backs and dumbly plodded on. 
 These body needs — accursed Eden goads ! 
 
 X 
 
 Within the dark I heard a voice one 
 
 night, 
 And all the air was vibrant with the 
 
 light- 
 some thought that crashed its zigzag 
 
 way; and then 
 An Error's mocking laugh. The ribald 
 
 wight ! 
 
 I thought one day I'd caught his 
 
 beckoning glance; 
 Covered with light — Transfiguration's 
 
 trance — 
 I stood with souls in white. I raised my 
 
 eyes, 
 Then hope was naught but memory of a 
 
 chance. 
 
XI 
 
 We read that Truth from one eternal 
 
 place 
 To us shall ever turn a changeless face, 
 A phantom mirror in his hand forsooth; 
 Of yesterday, to-day reflects no trace. 
 
 For Science changes every hour her 
 
 schemes ; 
 Empiric I What to-day as fact she deems, 
 Next year is refuse by the wayside flung; 
 For souls in mortal need, what good are 
 
 dreams ? 
 
 XII 
 
 I questioned Nature for some comfort- 
 screed ; 
 
 For high analogies; God's word and 
 deed 
 
 Must blend in one great scheme of law. 
 Quoth she 
 
 "The individual is a worthless weed. 
 
 >> 
 
 10 
 
The specie life with its unbroken train 
 Is Nature's god; and this for souls in 
 
 pain? 
 As cold as death she reads her cruel 
 
 creed : 
 "You're weak? Then pass; the 
 
 strongest must remain." 
 
 XIII 
 
 It is the old estate of me and thee; 
 Dividual life lost in captivity 
 Unto the whole. "What means the 
 
 world to me?" 
 Thus Omar cried. The end? Earth 
 
 waits to see. 
 
 Since his red wine a thousand years of 
 work; 
 
 Its bold results our logic may not shirk. 
 
 But of God's mind to man, — the Unit- 
 Soul ? 
 
 Says Nature's law, "Away with shrine 
 and kirk." 
 
 ii 
 
XIV 
 
 O Truth! Bemasked with smirk of 
 
 every race 
 Thy brow! How shall we know thine 
 
 alien face 
 By strange device of old and new 
 
 disguised ? 
 Yet souls distraught still seek thy 
 
 dwelling-place. 
 
 We would believe thy hidden brow is 
 
 bright, 
 Immortal reflex of the Essence, Light. 
 Why change thy raiment with the 
 
 beggar Doubt, 
 With all her shams and trumpery 
 
 bedight ? 
 
 Too faint thy image is in science' well 
 Thy mark uncertain as the sagas tell. 
 O Truth, tear off thy masks, and pray 
 
 make haste, 
 Or Doubt shall cast us into deepest hell. 
 
 12 
 
XV 
 
 O for Ithuriel's heaven-tempered spear! 
 Some spirit talisman that's crystal-clear! 
 Encased within this casket of dull clay, 
 What chance has man the truth to know 
 or hear? 
 
 Silent, Thou God, as Thy unanswering 
 
 sky, 
 Perhaps sometime, Thou'lt tell Thy 
 
 creatures why 
 The true and false are dual-unity. 
 And now, have mercy if in sin we die. 
 
 XVI 
 
 Since Death turned down the Persian's 
 
 empty glass, 
 The sun has seen the train of centuries 
 
 pass; 
 Uncertain-lipped, we question still the 
 
 law, 
 And still to us the heavens are as brass. 
 
 13 
 
j*fr\ 
 
 And when the past has swallowed up 
 
 to-day, 
 The future from us stolen nigh away, 
 We feel the shiver of the river-brink, 
 Ah, then forsooth we'll grovel, 
 
 whining, pray! 
 
 Aye, pray to one we never have 
 
 addressed ; 
 Reach for the cup our lips have passed 
 
 unpressed ; 
 See heaven shrivel and shrink above our 
 
 heads ; 
 Ye Moths ! — my kin ! Where shall we 
 
 then, unblessed? 
 
 XVII 
 
 My soul go hence ! This strife is idle 
 
 hum; 
 This life the beating of an empty drum; 
 A Holy Grail evanished is this Truth. 
 Back to thy nothingness ! Thou slave, 
 
 be dumb. 
 
 14 
 
And when again th' Eternal Sakis use 
 This earthern bowl I found, but did not 
 
 choose, 
 Still other bubbles in to pour, its clay 
 The flavor of mortality may lose. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 Will its new lips be only formed to 
 
 sigh? 
 Our questions, will it face with dreary 
 
 eye? 
 Nay, nay, I've wept its tears, this 
 
 beaten clay; 
 For man will then have come the Great 
 
 Reply ? 
 
 Beneath this star-splashed, zodiac-painted 
 
 bowl 
 Down-pressed, we crawl with smothering 
 
 of soul; 
 Is it uplifted for the Sufi seer 
 Whose tragic songs to us through 
 
 centuries roll? 
 
 15 
 
XIX 
 
 Omar! Ah, do you yet the mystery 
 
 know ? 
 Is Death a Fakir with no wonder-show? 
 Or have the Pleiads now no room for 
 
 souls, 
 The I, the You, diffused in ether-flow? 
 
 Through space as winds Death's 
 
 caravan its train, 
 Have you aught sweeter found than 
 
 earth-love's pain? 
 Flesh-robe of sorrow must you wear 
 
 again ? 
 Why dream I, mad? All dreams for 
 
 man are vain. 
 
 16 
 
/► *. 
 
 Wbt &>oul'& &ubatpat 
 
 Part II 
 
 The I, the Creature Man, unto my soul: 
 "Would'st look within the Ruler's great 
 
 Earth-Scroll ? 
 The folded centuries up-gather then; 
 By History's torch new-lit, the tale 
 
 unroll. 
 
 " 'Tis travail and the sweat of blood for 
 
 thee ; 
 The fixed stars of belief reel drunkenly; 
 Thy sun is blotted out; thy God 
 
 eclipsed ; 
 Go find us life; this chaos strangles me. 
 
 17 
 
II 
 
 "Rugged the moutains round thy 
 
 pathway close; 
 From peak to peak, far-glittering with 
 
 the snows 
 Of Reason's eyrie home. In what deep 
 
 hell 
 Beside thee Doubt, with torch inverted, 
 
 goes. 
 
 "Through legend-vales thou'lt follow pale 
 
 Despair ; 
 Doubt's poisonous night-shade, but no 
 
 hope-ray there. 
 When plaints the ringdove for her Yusuf 
 
 lost, 
 Thou soul, alone, wilt echo 'Where, O 
 
 where ?' 
 
 "But oh! through stress, lose not thy 
 God; no God? 
 
 Rather I'd be again my native clod; 
 
 Would set thee free from this earth- 
 hampered flight. 
 
 Make haste: I see too near the broken 
 sod. 
 
 18 
 
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 a 
 
 i > 
 
 Press on till bulbuls to the lark repeat 
 Thy prayer, thine incense for the 
 
 heavenly seat; 
 Till thou with morning's messenger 
 canst sing 
 Tis there !' — red roses crushing at thy 
 feet. 
 
 Ill 
 
 "Set up thine altar then, emblazoned 
 
 TRUTH,— 
 The IN HOC SALUS of thy faith 
 
 forsooth ; 
 And thy libations pour, my heart's best 
 
 wine; 
 There sacrifice the treasures of my 
 
 youth. 
 
 "Thy JESUS HOMINUM SALVATOR 
 too, 
 
 This shrine may prove, — those altar- 
 legends true ; 
 
 As from the dying seed new breath 
 suspires, 
 
 From faith's dead husks Christ-life may 
 spring anew. 
 
 19 
 
IV 
 
 "Stand up before thine altar now and 
 
 swear, 
 Thou priestess Soul, that to our God 
 
 Thou'lt bare 
 Thy brow unto whatever name be true; 
 Forgotten be the seal it used to wear. 
 
 "Thou'lt flinch not when old altars fall 
 
 to naught. 
 Theologies stripped to the quick of 
 
 thought, 
 And faiths, the sinews of thy life, 
 
 inwrought 
 With thy heart-threads, thou'lt give for 
 
 freedom bought: 
 
 " 'Tis spirit-vision with the single view, 
 A talisman to test the false and true. 
 No double thought; no judgment in 
 
 reserve ; 
 Mammon or God; thou can'st not serve 
 
 the two. 
 
 20 
 
V 
 
 That thou wilt do all this for thee and 
 
 me, 
 Swear it, as there is love 'twixt me and 
 
 thee." 
 And as she passed, my heart wept bitterly: 
 Yet 'tis man's only hope that thought 
 
 be free. 
 
 But oh! the hurt when old beliefs are rent 
 From lives by church-yard door-ways 
 
 long content: 
 O dogmas sacred as the mother's breast! 
 Make haste with healing lest the years 
 
 be spent. 
 
 JJx *JV *T*» ^X ^K ^Tx JJ* JK 
 
 VI 
 
 She came. Her step scarce moved her 
 
 vestments' fold. 
 The law was written in her lips' stern 
 
 mould ; 
 I cried aloud, "O my beloved speak." 
 Far off her voice; her eyes were deep 
 
 and old. 
 
 21 
 
VII 
 
 "Two graven tablets found I by the 
 
 way: 
 One chiseled by the Past, one by To-day 
 All faiths must read by these or else we 
 
 say, 
 'Perhaps the master-gravers were at 
 
 play.' 
 
 "History and Science — friendly scribes, 
 
 if reads 
 The reader well ; they mark man's 
 
 changing meeds. 
 When Knowledge swings the world in 
 
 line with law, 
 She'll show God's purpose to the human 
 
 needs. 
 
 "For individual lives, encrusted long 
 In chrysalis of creeds, are with a song 
 And spread of wings outbursting to the 
 
 hope 
 That Fear as fetish is a primal wrong. 
 
 22 
 
VIII 
 
 "These crowds that with a nation's 
 
 vigor burned, 
 Whose souls for truth of their Creator 
 
 yearned ; 
 They sought a Christ but found 
 
 Tradition's hell; 
 What wonder if to God-distrust they 
 
 turned? 
 
 "But sons of God, the seal is on them all; 
 Not potsherds set in rows against the wall. 
 With errors drugged, they stir as men 
 
 in sleep ; 
 New life a-thrill, they would shake off 
 
 the thrall." 
 
 IX 
 
 it 
 
 Yea soul, but veinings of a leaflet's plan 
 Go read," I cried. "From it the Maker 
 
 scan. 
 The individual, what is he to God? 
 O tragedy of him, the Unit-Man !" 
 
 23 
 
X 
 
 And long I waited while she wandered 
 — where ? 
 
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 •7* * , j* *j» *j» *"f* *^ ii^ 
 
 Far off I saw her, resurrection fair 
 Of form; her face a glory from within; 
 I knew she had with spirits swept the 
 ' air. 
 
 "'Tis Love," she cried. "A heart of 
 
 love the key 
 That opens now the one life-truth to 
 
 thee; 
 That God is love to man, and only love, 
 To His own children whom He would 
 
 make free. 
 
 "In lights sur'fine — the tints from 
 
 desert sands — 
 Beside me stood a man with pierced 
 
 hands, 
 His brightness shaded by the mantling 
 
 sun; 
 His voice, — no sound so sweet on 
 
 summer strands. 
 
 24 
 
XI 
 
 " 'Man is not left alone upon the sod 
 Of earth, his home, though often weary 
 
 trod; 
 God's amulet of love, within he bears; 
 No heart that loves can ever lose its 
 
 God. 
 
 (t ( 
 
 And when thou bearest to the river- 
 
 brink 
 Thy talisman of love, thou shalt not 
 
 shrink; 
 And there the Angel of eternal life 
 'Shall lift her Cup o'er-flowed, and bid 
 
 thee drink! 
 
 XII 
 
 "And he was gone. The Mother-Earth 
 
 looked up, 
 A twilight on her face; the hasty sup 
 Of sweetness, fragrant on the desert air; 
 Earth sighed for yet a cup — a brimming 
 
 Cup. 
 
 25 
 
rfn 
 
 "A tender mantle of his thought to thee 
 Fell on me as he passed. Love gives 
 
 thee free 
 Salvation from the 'Body of this death/ 
 The world-old fetish, dread of God's 
 
 decree. 
 
 XIII 
 
 "Even as on Judea's mountain-side 
 He spake. And then I knew with 
 
 vision wide, 
 Not lore occult nor dogmas complicate 
 Made of the Nazarine, the Crucified. 
 
 "But patience meeting wrong with 
 
 meekness mild; 
 Simplicity with wisdom of a child; 
 And charity's clean hand that cast no 
 
 stone, 
 And raised the weeping Mary, undefiled. 
 
 26 
 
"It is the spirit of the Master's thought; 
 Not deep developments, by scholars 
 
 wrought 
 Of doctrines that would shrivel on the lips 
 Which 'Peace and good-will' from the 
 
 manger brought. 
 
 "Spirit of love all human and divine ; 
 One chalice ruby with his heart's red 
 
 wine, 
 From lip to lip, the Rabbin then shall 
 
 pass 
 In mosque-cathedral-temple, one pure 
 
 shrine. 
 
 XIV 
 
 "And there shall come a time of 
 
 Pentecost 
 To thee upon thy homeward way, but 
 
 lost; 
 When 'tongues of fire,' a spirit flame, 
 
 the truth 
 For thee, shall heal thy heart, sore 
 
 question-tossed. 
 
 27 
 
"Then life shall be an Olivet of peace, 
 And from its height thy vision shall 
 
 increase 
 To unknown kingdoms of His love and 
 
 joy, 
 
 Till doubts like waves on a dead sea 
 shall cease. 
 
 "Be it Love's Zion-heights immortalized, 
 Be it Gethsemanes pain-solemnized, 
 Be it the cross of life-hopes sacrificed, 
 Thine eyes shall see the fields 
 emparadised." 
 
 XV 
 
 She ceased. And from her eyes' 
 
 uplifted sight 
 A splendor filled the deepness of the 
 
 night : 
 Oh, mantle of the hope that covered me ! 
 O Truth, the glory of that desert light! 
 
 28 
 
XVI 
 
 "Accept defeat as to Creation's plan," 
 I cried. "There is no other peace for 
 
 man. 
 The De Profundis of a life is this, — 
 Would god be God if I His will could 
 
 scan? 
 
 "Now in the sun I set the bowl to-day: 
 What matter be it brazen bowl or clay? 
 It gathered up the light of yesterday; 
 To-morrow it shall draw a brighter ray. 
 
 XVII 
 
 "Once Ramoth scoffed and clashed the 
 
 heavenly keys; 
 One door defied his hand. 'What then 
 
 are these? 
 Insult from Him?' he cried. Then 
 
 Astrofel, 
 'The mystery of His Godhead would'st 
 
 thou seize?' 
 
 29 
 
"So I, the Self, this terror-stricken lord 
 Of earth who is afraid to meet his God, 
 Upon th' Eternal Sword would lay a 
 
 hand, 
 And would compel th' Almighty's final 
 
 Word. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 "Forever vanished now the great 
 god Fear; 
 
 Released his captives, to the daylight- 
 cheer. 
 
 Gone too, the little gods of fretting 
 creeds ; 
 
 But Love remains and God is there — is 
 here. 
 
 "I see men perjured, mad with lust of 
 
 fame; 
 I see them reeking with the gutter's 
 
 shame. 
 Behold! they rise and call upon God's 
 
 name; 
 For Fear lives not, but Love with eyes 
 
 of flame." 
 
 30 
 
XIX 
 
 O Love, our refuge in earth's wildest 
 
 storm ! 
 O Service, life-breath of a heart that's 
 
 warm! 
 A dual-unity, of heaven born; 
 For love is service in its highest form. 
 
 Flame-tints that shimmer on the desert 
 
 air! 
 Love-lights that make Life's sands a 
 
 garden fair, 
 Where joy and pain sing softly to the 
 
 soul 
 That God in man is Love in human 
 
 care. 
 
 3i 
 
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 bjas fte<5l; 
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