THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES WILLIAMS 
 
 ? 
 
 SSCOND EDITION 
 
 LONOON 
 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Ltd. 
 
 DRYDEJV HOUSB, 43 GKRBARD STRRBT, W. 
 1911
 
 
 The brief sermonettes in verse, to 
 which passages from the Imitatio Chnsti 
 are prefixed as Texts, will, the writer 
 hopes, be found to contain something 
 of St Thomas' inspiring thought. None 
 have been taken from the Fourth 
 Book. The reason of this omission 
 will be found in the concluding sonnet. 
 
 J. W. 
 
 Oxford, 
 
 30<A November 1910. 
 
 941 
 
 o.-^':
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Thou wast named Thomas, still didst thou believe, 
 
 Thy life a long denial of thy name, 
 Disciple of thy Lord thou didst not grieve 
 
 That till thy death the world denied thee fame. 
 
 Humility and faith — with lamps like these 
 To light the pathway leading to thy tomb — 
 
 Small wonder that thy spirit was at ease 
 As nearer drew the tardy feet of doom. 
 
 Perchance as life ebbed faster day by day 
 
 Thou didst gaze wistful to the wondrous West, 
 
 And mark beyond the turbid Zuyder Zee 
 Cloud-palaces in islands of the blest ; 
 
 And sloping moors that smiled with purple heath, 
 And glimmering meads that man hath never trod. 
 
 And golden amaranth wherewith to wreath 
 The martyrs nearest to the throne of God.
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 II 
 
 Our minds are bounded by the paltry lust 
 Of human combat and of human hope, 
 Ourselves what can we do but blindly grope ? 
 'Tis therefore we believe because we must. 
 
 There is no happiness where is no trust ; 
 We know not all, let Kaiser or let Pope 
 Proclaim what is to come, we cannot cope 
 With things unseen beyond our world of dust. 
 
 We dwell in middle days ; we cannot know 
 Or what hath been or what is still to be, 
 Or whither footsteps of the future go. 
 
 Faith is our substitute for prophecy, 
 Till science can interpret us with glow 
 Behind the curtain of eternity.
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris, i, 1, I. 
 
 The moon has set, the stars are veiled, 
 
 In this deep Devon lane 
 The beauty of the earth has failed 
 
 Before the sleet and rain. 
 
 Black skies accord with blacker thought. 
 
 The very heaven is hell. 
 The wind amid the trees has wrought 
 
 Their rustling to a knell. 
 
 'Tis past ; I step on firmer feet, 
 
 My timid heart grows bold. 
 There is a pause of rain and sleet. 
 
 Warmth waxes out of cold. 
 
 Redeemer of the world, 'tis Thou 
 Who smooth'st the road for me, 
 
 I walk no more in darkness now 
 Because I walk with Thee. 
 
 3
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 DocTRiNA Christi omnes doctrinas sanctorum 
 
 PRAECELLIT, i. i. 2. 
 
 Oh, teach my spirit, Lord, that I 
 May learn a new philosophy 
 And bring Thy kingdom nearer me 
 
 Before the hour that I must die. 
 
 It is all strange and full of doubt, 
 The day is indistinct from night, 
 The wrong is mingled with the right, 
 
 And errors compass me about. 
 
 The Power that bade the high priest's rod 
 Burst into blossom in his hand, — 
 Mayhap for me that Power has planned 
 
 Strong keys to fit the locks of God. 
 
 4
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Quid prodest tibi alta de Trinitate disputare si 
 
 CAREAS HUMILITATE UNDE DISPLICEAS TrINITATI ? 
 
 i. 1, 3. 
 
 Methought it dazzled me, the splendid scene 
 The Tuscan poet limned, the whirling sheen 
 Of those three mystic orbs enclasped in one.^ 
 Methought I saw again the midday sun 
 Obscured by stronger light whose waves beat round 
 The great white throne itself. Then came the sound 
 Of harmony not earthly, and my soul 
 Was stilled in marvel. So the measured roll 
 Of sad sea music smites along the chines 
 And over whispering wheat and answering pines 
 To mingle with the sheep-bells on the down. 
 The glory was to me the pearl and crown 
 Of all that day. To its interpreting 
 I gave the hours. In vain the eager wing 
 Of swift or swallow swirled beside my ear. 
 In vain the trout made circles in the mere 
 Or cautious vole glanced once and swam the stream. 
 Then slowly spread a tremor through the gleam, 
 As in the tropic noon when palm and cane 
 In Caribbean islands thirst for rain 
 Along the stony dales, and giant flowers 
 That languish scentless through the languorous 
 hours 
 
 ^ tre gire 
 Di tre colori e d'una continenza. 
 
 Dante, Par., xxxiii. 116. 
 5
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Seem to tired eyes to waver in the heat. 
 Then brake a voice clear, passionless, and meet 
 For chiding : " Vain it is for thee, O man, 
 To seek with finite intellect to scan 
 The mystery of things. Enough for thee 
 To know the being of the things that be 
 Without the how and why. To argument 
 Save humbleness the veil is never rent, 
 The bounds of knowledge are defined by fate. 
 And thou must stoop to enter at the gate."
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 ISTA EST SUMMA SAPIENTIA PER CONTEMPTUM MUNDI 
 TENDERE AD REGNA CCELESTIA, i. 1, 3. 
 
 What boots it at the hour of death 
 To found a fame upon the page 
 Long laboured in a strenuous age 
 
 Whereat the world still wondereth ? 
 
 The King of terrors must unfurl 
 His banner ere the day be spent, 
 And slowly from the eyes is rent 
 
 The veil that hides the gates of pearl. 
 
 No poet's foot on earth hath trod 
 The pathway unto true delight, 
 Humility was out of sight, 
 
 The first with men are last with God. 
 
 Ah me, could men but learn the lore 
 That disciplined by art of books 
 Grows purer with the years and looks 
 
 Aspiring unto something more !
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Nam sequentes suam sensuautatem maculant 
 
 CONSCIENTIAM, i. 1, 5. 
 
 As -when in vintage hours the gathered fruit 
 Mule-borne in oozing panniers to the press 
 Distils green pulp and purple and the dress 
 Of Douro hinds is splashed from neck to boot ; 
 
 So in my ripest thought all resolute 
 
 With self-support at times I bear the stress 
 Of self-contempt, while sin right merciless 
 Feeds vintage meet with its envenomed root. 
 
 The vintagers must cleanse them in the fount, 
 I need and find a nobler spring than they 
 To purify the fouler heart within. 
 
 For He who died for me upon the mount 
 Of Calvary on that tremendous day 
 With stain of blood conceals the stain of sin.
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Ama NESCIRI, i. 2, 3. 
 
 Aha nesciri. Like a hammer's beat 
 
 The loud earth- struggle smites upon the ear. 
 Eager to drown those voices pure and clear 
 That led us upward once to thoughts more meet. 
 
 Ama nesciri. Void and incomplete 
 
 Is glory loved of man, and prince and peer 
 Find branches of the tree of gold wax sere 
 When Death steals nigh with his remorseless 
 feet. 
 
 Ama nesciri. From my humble place 
 
 Let me look on and mark the mighty fall 
 Disconsolate and vanquished in the race. 
 
 Ama nesciri. Of a truth the small 
 
 Are greater than the great before the face 
 Of that just Judge who dealeth right to all.
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Taedet me sakpe multa legere et audire, i. 3, 2. 
 
 We read and hear, we hear and read, 
 
 What profit find we there ? 
 Will learning in the hour of need 
 
 Do more than speak us fair ? 
 
 Will Aristotle show the path 
 
 That leadeth to the light, 
 Or all the charm that Plato hath 
 
 Direct the soul aright ? 
 
 The Wisdom that on high is set 
 Will teach not words but things, 
 
 And in that teaching to forget 
 Man's false imaginings. 
 
 Celestial Wisdom, open wide 
 
 The golden gates of truth, 
 Dissolve for evermore the pride 
 
 Absorbed from books in youth. 
 
 10
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Omnis speculatio nostra quadam caligine non 
 
 CARET, i. 3, 4. 
 
 A3 a strong eagle in the silent blue 
 
 Hangs poised a moment ere he dares to soar 
 To regions brighter than he knew before, 
 To heights whence half the world seems broad in 
 view ; 
 
 So have we stood and now we stand anew 
 
 High in the heaven of truth, but ah ! with more 
 Than eagle will and less than eagle store 
 Of strength to find us what is found by few. 
 
 We reach the very battlements of heaven, 
 So seems it to our sense, then far within 
 A thousand miles away rise snow-peaks white. 
 
 Yea, were it granted to our prayer to even 
 
 Scale those long hills 'twere but with tears to win 
 
 The knowledge of a hopeless infinite. 
 
 11
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 QUAM CITO TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI ! i. 3, 6. 
 
 In that God's acre silent, vast, 
 
 The dead lie row on row, 
 The relics of a hidden past 
 
 That none but they can know. 
 
 The stately cedars cast their shade 
 
 Alike on great and small, 
 And honour and precedence fade. 
 
 The grave is one for all. 
 
 None laugh that pass the graveyard door, 
 The thoughtless hold their breath. 
 
 And slanderous tongues are still before 
 The majesty of death. 
 
 12
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Bona vita facit hominem sapientem secundum Deum 
 et expertum in multis^ i. 4, 2. 
 
 I, Wisdom, sit at God's right hand, 
 I am the mirror of His power,i 
 My voice is carried hour by hour 
 
 To them who will not understand. 
 
 I saw before the life of things 
 The founding of the firmament, 
 And by God's own command was sent 
 
 To lead the world in golden strings. 
 
 But men despised me, and I found 
 The palm of conquest not for me, 
 And impotent was I to free 
 
 The soul by humbler interests bound. 
 
 I, Wisdom, have eternal youth, 
 Such few as love me are repaid, 
 Their incoherent visions fade 
 
 Before the everlasting truth. 
 
 1 Wisdom vii. 26. 
 
 13
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 NON QUAERAS QUIS HOC DIXERIT SED QUID DICATUR 
 ATTENDE, i, 5, 1. 
 
 No matter who has said it, 
 
 If but the words be true, 
 Maybe the brain that sped it 
 
 Thought under Syrian blue : 
 
 Or pondered by the centre 
 
 Of some vast Indian plain, 
 By pollards of Deventer, 
 
 By sun-dried dust of Spain. 
 
 The truth is one, but error 
 
 Is ever manifold, 
 The truth implants the terror 
 
 Of being overbold. 
 
 If one by prayer and fasting 
 Have trained him in his youth, 
 
 To him the Everlasting 
 Unveils the soul of truth. 
 
 14
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 SuPERBUS ET AVARUS NUNQUAM QUIESCUNT, i. 6, 1. 
 
 At once when surged the crowd of courtiers dense 
 In Shushan, Vashti in her royal pride 
 Contemned her lord nor throned her by his side. 
 Refusing indecorous reverence ; 
 
 As once promoted by the queen's offence 
 The maiden Esther came, a fearful bride. 
 But from her shamefast eyes there never died 
 The very soul of love and innocence ; 
 
 So all the pride I held for lord the day 
 
 When I was all and Christ was less than nought 
 Bears but a diadem of withered palm. 
 
 Past monarchs of the soul are put away. 
 
 With them go tempests of unrestful thought. 
 For on the sea of pride there is no calm. 
 
 15
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Aliter sunt judicia Dei quam hominum, i. ?, 3. 
 
 God girded Justice with a flaming sword, 
 
 She sits enthroned with Mercy at her side, 
 God speaketh in her voice, and at her word 
 The hearts of men are tried. 
 
 Man's memory is short but hers is long, 
 
 With vengeance for a half-forgotten crime 
 She strikes some head set high above the throng, 
 Triumphant over time. 
 
 Divinest thing is she of all the state, 
 
 Aloof she sits and judges through the years, 
 Sometimes her stern eyes wax compassionate, 
 And Mercy smiles through tears. 
 
 16
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Imaginatio locorum et mutatio multos fefellit, 
 
 i. 9, 1. 
 
 Who hath not dreamed of some far different strand 
 Long ere his voyage thither, with its seas 
 Surpassing narrow friths of home, its trees 
 Of broader shade than in his native land ? 
 
 There longer billows break on sunnier sand. 
 
 Through sweeter flowers roam more industrious 
 
 bees. 
 On richer heather falls a softer breeze, 
 By statelier bridges deeper streams are spanned. 
 
 So dreams he till he reckons at the last 
 With real things and finds the glory past, 
 And what false thoughts his fancy had devised. 
 
 Scarce is a scene that looks as fair as when 
 'Twas painted by the art of brush or pen, 
 So loves he more the home that he despised. 
 
 17
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 NoS NIMIUM PROPRIIS OCCUPAMUR PASSIOMBUS^ i. 1 1 , 2. 
 
 To think no thoughts save abject thoughts and 
 lowly, 
 To labour not unless for daily bread, 
 To look on self as something high and holy, 
 Better dead. 
 
 To pay no reverence to things above us, 
 To fear eternity with hopeless dread, 
 To mark the years increase with none to love us, 
 Better dead. 
 
 18
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 NON EST ALIQUIS ORDO TAM SANCTUS NEC LOCUS TAM 
 SECRETUS UBI NON SINT TENTATIONES VEL ADVERSI- 
 TATES, i. 13, 3. 
 
 Hide thyself away 
 
 Cowering in thy basement, 
 
 Bid the light of day 
 
 Enter not thy casement ; 
 
 Join an order strict, 
 
 Vowed to scantiest rations. 
 
 Still wilt thou be pricked 
 Ever by temptations. 
 
 Evil powers will shape 
 
 Thoughts of things unholy. 
 
 Thou canst not escape. 
 Lowliest of the lowly. 
 
 19
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 QuiDAM A MAGNIS TENTATIOMBUS CUSTODIUNTUR ET IN 
 PARVIS QUOTIDIANIS SAEPE VINCUNTUR, i. 13, 8. 
 
 We say a Yes, we mean a No, 
 We rise so high, we sink so low. 
 And in our ignorance subHme 
 Neglect what makes or mars the time. 
 We win great things to lose the small, 
 Thence comes the error and the fall, 
 So Alexander, half divine, 
 Was mortal at the breath of wine. 
 Behind us lies the mountain sheer, 
 'Tis then the peril is most near. 
 Unscathed we suffer toilsome hours 
 To perish in a land of Howers. 
 
 SO
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 MULTUM FACIT QUI MULTUM DILIGIT, i. 15, 2. 
 
 All for love's sake ; 
 Landj sea, and heaven are come to greet their lord, 
 For love hath summoned cowslips from the sward 
 To tM-ine withal his heart-compelling cord. 
 
 And the land spake ; 
 And lo ! like lightning sprang to life her flowers, 
 Bees poised themselves in deep acacia bowers, 
 Where love dreamed dream by dream through 
 fragrant hours. 
 
 And the sea spake ; 
 The curling thunder of the landward wave 
 Brake into shafts of sheen from cave to cave. 
 White shafts whereof the sky was architrave. 
 
 And the heaven spake ; 
 The sun's swift car drave westward from the east. 
 Eternal music rose and fell and ceased, 
 Divine and human kept their bridal feast. 
 
 21
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Ad serviendum venisti non ad regendum, i. 17, 3. 
 
 Hark, hark, the silver trumpet, hark the tread 
 Of chargers' hoofs, and hark the hoarse com- 
 mand ! 
 Ah God, what do I ? I that here must stand 
 The servant of the Lord till I am dead. 
 
 They come ! 1 see the knightly pennons spread ; 
 White horses ! certes, 'tis Dirk Sijver's band — 
 Forgive me. Lord, but on the quays of Gand — 
 And where my sword struck home the earth was 
 red. 
 
 That day in June when all the city came 
 To see the joust 'twixt me and Chevenix, 
 And from the lists alive one only went ! 
 
 That other day — avaunt, base thoughts, in shame. 
 Until I lose before the crucifix 
 Vile memories of pomp and tournament ! 
 
 ••JO
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Homo proponit sed Deus disponit, i. 19, 2. 
 
 Behind them wound the passes of the Alps, 
 
 Before them lay the plain of Lombardy, 
 
 And they, a cohort of an alien race, 
 
 With tawny beards and siinbrowned cheeks and 
 
 eyes 
 Blue as the water of the Baltic friths 
 Wherefrom they marched, came suddenly to halt 
 All marvelling. In faith 'twas marvellous 
 The fertile fields waxed fainter in the south 
 Until the earth was mingled with the heaven 
 Where rose a red church tower. And as they 
 
 watched 
 Behold the sun that sank behind the tower 
 Transfigured it to gold. Then Hjalmar spake, 
 The son of Egil of the Skanian land, 
 " Such light on the etei*nal city broods, 
 The city of our quest." Then turning him 
 He was aware of one at his right hand. 
 Stricken in years and weary of the road ; 
 Withal the delicate lithe limbs were his 
 Of dwellers in the south, the courtesy. 
 The deference. His feet were white with dust, 
 His garments stained with sun and rain and storm. 
 And in his eyes the look of one who dreams 
 Such dreams as fate hath made impossible. 
 Then Hjalmar in imperfect Latin speech 
 
 23
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Spake to the stranger^ sloping back his axe 
 
 Of iron of the dale lest fear should seize 
 
 An old man gazing on its war-notched edge ; 
 
 " Which way doth the eternal city lie, 
 
 Or east or west or south ? The wayfarer 
 
 Answered with hopeless words, " These thirty years 
 
 I seek and find not what thou seekest now, 
 
 For I have never found it nor will ye. 
 
 Long have I borne the toil of many roads, 
 
 The storms of many seas, the rivers bridged 
 
 By many bridges, but 1 never saAv 
 
 The lights of the eternal city shine 
 
 Save in the stars. Eternal there is nought. 
 
 Believe me, but the New Jerusalem, 
 
 And none may pass its gates before he die." 
 
 24
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 In secreto tutius exercentur privata, i. 19^ 5. 
 
 Beside the sea-rim on the bird-flecked sands. 
 Where silence in the marshes reigns complete. 
 Save for a curlew's wings that beat and beat, 
 Alone I raised to God my praying hands. 
 
 Much need have I to do so when the bands 
 Of unforgiven sin impede my feet, 
 And seeds I thought mature for autumn 
 
 wheat 
 Have proved but summer tares that fire 
 demands. 
 
 Ah me, the dream of glory turned to shame ! 
 Alone I dreamed it, and alone I fell 
 The deeper fall that 'twas a fall from fame. 
 
 What prayer I offered then I may not tell. 
 But when I ended from the sea-rim came 
 A light of hope to lift my soul from hell. 
 
 25
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Oportet eum cum Jesu a turba declinare, i. 20, 2. 
 
 All the world is full of labour, 
 
 Brows of men are damp with sweat, 
 
 Each is wiser than his neighbour, 
 Wealth the standard each hath set, 
 
 Probity is little worth. 
 
 Gold is monarch of the earth. 
 
 Weary of the dust of cities, 
 
 Get I me in silent mood 
 Where I hear the songbirds' ditties 
 
 Thrilling over wold and wood. 
 Making music sweet and clear, 
 Such as cities never hear. 
 
 Solitary souls despising 
 
 Sordid matters for a time. 
 Hear, when vesper stars are rising, 
 
 Echoes of a heavenly clime, 
 Till the deep of heaven is shown 
 Open to the great white throne. 
 
 Faint and dreamwise in the gloiy 
 Glows the beauty of the King, 
 
 Such the widow's son of story 
 Hailed at his awakening. 
 
 When the mourners mourned in vain, 
 
 Halting at the gates of Nain. 
 
 26
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Claude super te ostium tuum, i. 20, 8. 
 
 Idle stand through the night and still 
 Moss-grown sails of the polder mill, 
 Leaves and poplars withered and dun 
 Wait for death with the rising sun ; 
 Almost come to the vigilant sight 
 Gentle eyes of the eremite 
 In the deep of the dawn when grey 
 Rolls the mist from the Zuvder Zee. 
 
 27
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Sine peccato esse non possumus, i. 22, 5. 
 
 Sin hath its gift of anodyne. 
 
 It lulls the conscience into sleep, 
 It bids the eyes no longer weep 
 
 With tears of charity divine. 
 
 Unhelpful is the gift of tears 
 
 When sin with noisome lips hath kissed 
 Responsive lips and breathed a mist 
 
 Athwart the mirror of the years. 
 
 It bases all the deeds of men 
 
 On dull inevitable law, 
 
 And holds for childishness the awe 
 That guided once the prophet's pen. 
 
 It hath its narrow firmament, 
 Mistrustful where it cannot see, 
 By self-created formulae 
 
 Disproving thoughts that God hath sent. 
 
 Lord, open Thou mine eyes that I 
 May raise them for a space afar 
 Beyond the boundaries that bar 
 
 The gates of heaven to souls that die. 
 
 28
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Si bonam conscientiam haberes, non multum mortem 
 
 TIMERES, i. 23, 1. 
 
 Full blessing have the dead who dying give 
 
 No bitter memories for them who live. 
 
 Whose death is reason for the genuine tear 
 
 And for the strangled sob, "Would he were here ! " 
 
 Earth holds few such, but after many days 
 
 Their heads bear still the wreath of seemly bays. 
 
 29
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 MULTA BONA POTES OPERARI DUM SANUS ES, SED 
 INFIRMATUS NESCIO QUID POTERIS, i. 23, 4. 
 
 The ears of rye surge westward wave on wave 
 
 Before the summer wind, and at the edge 
 Of that green foam the dense pine forests crave 
 An equal privilege. 
 
 They, like the rye, bend downward graceful boughs, 
 
 Their myriad leaves discuss the melody 
 Of nature music such as warrior prows 
 Strike from the swaying sea. 
 
 Here would I pause and mark young sunshine shrill 
 
 Tremulous through the ranks of terebinth 
 To nooks brocaded once with daffodil 
 And rich witli hyacinth ; 
 
 And live again in thought the hours of youth 
 
 When all the world was like these flowers long 
 dead, 
 Before experience taught for trust in truth 
 Suspicion in its stead. 
 
 Suns rise and set and rise, and all is nought. 
 The coast of boyhood farther still recedes, 
 Age can but marvel why no dreams were brought 
 By manhood into deeds. 
 
 30
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Stude nunc tauter vivere ut in hora mortis 
 VALEAS potius gaudere quam timere, i. 23, t). 
 
 To live as convicts claimed by death. 
 To live and know that life is vain, 
 That we shall never see again 
 
 The mirror dimmed with failing breath ; 
 
 To live in faith and dare to die, 
 To live and know that life is not 
 A little hour and all forgot 
 
 But training for eternity. 
 
 Which theory will suit thee best ? 
 Unhappy if thou choose the first 
 And mark one day the tempest burst 
 
 Without a haven for thy rest. 
 
 31
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Omnium finis mors, i. 23, 7. 
 
 A SHRIVELLED leaf that red upon the ground 
 
 In autumn perisheth, 
 Could I explain its fall I so might sound 
 
 The mystery of Death. 
 Why haste thee, Death ? Why come with feet so 
 
 fast ? 
 Spare me a space, I must be thine at last. 
 
 32
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 QUIS MEMORABITUR TUI POST MORTEM ? i. 23, 8. 
 
 Thrones and sceptres turn to dustj 
 Spears and bucklers gather rust, 
 Fame is like a meteor's flight 
 Seen athwart an August night, 
 Even names that now endure 
 Cannot make these names secure. 
 Scant the band that finds a lot 
 Better than to be forgot. 
 Ruthless are the scythes of fate. 
 Sparing neither small nor great, 
 Loftiest prose and verse they reap 
 Into granaries of sleep, 
 Grace of painting or of sound 
 Sleeps a sleep no less profound, 
 Happy he who not at all 
 Cares that reputations fall. 
 What is glory to the heart 
 Trained to dwell with Christ apart ? 
 Death to him is not the end, 
 Death to him is but a friend. 
 
 33
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 In omnibus rebus respice finem, i. 24, 1. 
 
 The muffled thunder of the city street 
 
 Waxed fainter at the nearing of the dawn, 
 
 And one might hear again the melody 
 
 Of high hung chimes, the striking of the hour, 
 
 The echo rolling on from spire to spire, 
 
 From tower to tower. Then silence like the peace 
 
 Before a tempest. In the silence I 
 
 Inwrapped myself and mused, and reasoning 
 
 I failed of reason, for it was to me 
 
 As though my reason and my faith fell out, 
 
 Eager for battle where the battle-joy 
 
 Would be more sad than sorrow. It was mine 
 
 To charge myself as an accursed thing. 
 
 To find no remedy in heaven or earth ; 
 
 And with the voiceless communing of thought 
 
 Despair grew ever closer round the soul — 
 
 Despair at knowing right and choosing Avrong, 
 
 Despair at sin that lied itself to good. 
 
 Despair at evil spirits masked as gods. 
 
 Then slowly mantled on the face of heaven 
 
 A gradual blush of dayspring, star by star 
 
 The lamps of night were quenched. Meseemed 
 
 the sun 
 Brought music with his rising, and I heard 
 The ripple of a perfect voice that sang 
 Beali qtiorum tecta sunt pcccata. 
 
 34
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Such music on the morrow of St John 
 Some solitary herdsmen of the hills 
 Hears leaning on his staff in wonderment, 
 And listens to the surging oaks and knows 
 That once a year there comes a miracle 
 To fill the woods with tremor of the sea. 
 
 35
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Quod justum est judicabit, i. S-i, 1. (a.) 
 
 We wandered seeking in the night 
 For justice and the rule of law, 
 But not the wisest of us saw 
 
 God's hand upon the helm of right. 
 
 Quod justum est judicabit, i. 24, 1. (6.) 
 
 All things are greater than we know. 
 And if to us God seems unjust 
 
 The reason is we look too low 
 And unconvinced can only trust. 
 
 S6
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Tunc plus valebunt sancta opera quam multa 
 
 PULCRA VERBA, i. 24, 6. 
 
 King Sancho walked as a peasant wight ; 
 He will not pass for a King to-night. 
 
 Through wine and garlic beladen air 
 He came at last to Zocodover. 
 
 He kneeled on his knee as the host went by 
 And the shrill bell tinkled for one to die. 
 
 Then spake the priest, " Wilt thou go with me 
 A soul that is parting requireth thee. 
 
 And thou must assist at a sacrament 
 
 Where the life of the dying is wellnigh spent." 
 
 King Sancho followed, for then in the land 
 A monarch obeyed a priest's command. 
 
 Besmirched with his blood Bartolome 
 Struck down by a brand of Toledo lay. 
 
 A silver lamp threw a ghostly glow, 
 The oil of the silver lamp was low. 
 
 37
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Bartolome gazed at the King as one 
 Whose eyes are dim at the noontide sun. 
 
 For once he had plotted an evil thing, 
 Castile to be free by death of the King. 
 
 Then gat he pardon, but plotted still 
 And hid himself from the alguacil. 
 
 Well Sancho knew of the murder plan, 
 But his face turned not from the sinful man. 
 
 " Once more I pardon, for who am I 
 
 To dwell on vengeance when death is nigh ? " 
 
 The Latin froze on the lips of the priest. 
 The oil in the silver lamp had ceased. 
 
 And Sancho homeward gat him again, 
 A King of himself and a King of men. 
 
 08
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 NOLUIT CURIOSE INVESTIGARE UT SCIRET QUAE SIBI 
 ESSENT FUTURA^ i. 25, 2. 
 
 The coming hour has secrets of its own, 
 
 Could we but read them now perchance we 
 might 
 Reap scantier crop from that hope-harvest sown 
 Wherewith the fields are white. 
 
 O happy they who by philosophy — 
 
 Philosophy of heaven, that were the best — 
 Bear the world's buffets in the panoply 
 Of mystic armour dressed. 
 
 O happier they who find the morrow bring 
 
 Brief smiles and not long tears, not frost but 
 flowers. 
 Fate hath surprises, and enfolded spring 
 
 Still lives through winter hours. 
 
 39
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Imaginem tibi propone CrucifixIj i. 25, 6. 
 
 Within the courtyard of Saint Barnabas 
 The novice stood disturbed and sick of soul, 
 And heard through piled clouds the thunder roll 
 And saw the lightning quiver in the pass. 
 
 Should he take on him final vows or no ? 
 
 Should he return to meet the world once more? 
 
 Should he go forth and hear the cloister door 
 Clash harshly on a friend become a foe ? 
 
 To his Redeemer's semblance looked he up ; 
 '' O Thou, dear Lord, made sacrifice for me, 
 Grant me a sign whereby to learn from Thee 
 
 If I may share the sorrow of Thy cup." 
 
 Down flashed the lightning with two crooked horns. 
 One smote upon the crucifix, and there 
 Was answer to the burden of his prayer, 
 
 For jit his feet there lay a crown of thorns. 
 
 ■U)
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Omnia ei vivunt, i. 25, 10. 
 
 Vicissitudes of blossoms on the leas 
 
 Inspire the teaching of the centuries. 
 
 Death is the nurse of life, and spring by spring 
 
 New barley smiles afield, new hopbines cling. 
 
 Brown roots with snow of winter dank and wet 
 
 Wake to anemone and violet ; 
 
 So in the world of mystery the wraith 
 
 Of things once dead is called to life by faith. 
 
 I know that my Redeemer lives forwhy 
 
 He is the very Word that cannot die ; 
 
 I know that with omniscience so august 
 
 He can at once be merciful and just, 
 
 His human heart was oft by mercy rent. 
 
 His justice orders all the firmament. 
 
 41
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Inveniet anima tua requiem, ii. 1^ 1. 
 
 Injustice poisons all the days 
 That here we spend on earth. 
 
 The world has sympathy with praise 
 Bestowed on little worth. 
 
 Brave hearts, be silent, nor complain 
 But steer your course aright. 
 
 Accounting loss as coming gain 
 And dark as coming light. 
 
 So shall ye reach that other life 
 
 Of justice and of calm. 
 Where they vho have endured the strife 
 
 Are they who bear the palm. 
 
 4S
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 DiSCE EXTERIORA CONTEMNERE, ii. 1, 1. 
 
 Of old a pilgrim girt for Rome 
 I saw — and shall not see again — 
 The Lombard valleys ripe with rain. 
 
 And over all Mount Rosa's dome. 
 
 I saw the terraces of vines 
 
 In tier on tier to Fiesole, 
 
 I saw Siena stern and grey, 
 And at her back the Apennines. 
 
 Ah me, if but once more mine eye 
 Were satiate with the sense of height 
 When at the coming of the night 
 
 Gaunt mountains mingle with the sky ! 
 
 If I might see Assisi bear 
 
 Her great ones lulled to kindly sleep. 
 And welcome on the ruddy steep 
 
 The towers of Francis and of Clare ! 
 
 Peace, peace, my heart, for God is near 
 No less amid the osier fen 
 Than on the giant cliffs where men 
 
 Forbode the avalanche and fear. 
 
 43
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Manet in aeternum, ii. 1, 2. 
 
 Love poises him on his immortal wings, 
 And where he is the clouds are rosy red. 
 
 He will not perish till the end of things, 
 Till death himself be dead. 
 
 44
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Si tu scis tacere et pati, videbis procul dubio 
 AUXiLiuM Domini, ii. 2, 1. (a.) 
 
 Not void of profit are the days 
 Of one who will endeavour him, 
 Though foot be lame and vision dim. 
 
 To follow Christ through thorny ways. 
 
 His labour is repaid enough 
 Obtaining intermittent sight 
 Of something more than earthly light 
 
 Beyond the pathway rude and rough. 
 
 His heart that once within him died 
 Can bear whatever may befall, 
 Afar there rises over all 
 
 The figure of the Crucified. 
 
 45
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Si tu scis tacere et pati, videbis procul dubio 
 AuxiLiuM Domini, ii. 2, 1. (6.) 
 
 There lies a clue for him that heeds 
 If he in lowly patience wait, 
 Acknowledging through mists of fate 
 
 The God enthroned behind the creeds. 
 
 Submissive will he love and trust 
 Intelligence more vast than his 
 Until he learn the lot that is 
 
 Apportioned him by hands august. 
 
 Those hands are holders of the clue, 
 
 They are the wounded hands of Christ ; 
 Seek with their aid the promised tryst 
 
 Though thy companions will be few. 
 
 46
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 NON REPUTES TE ALIQUID PROFECISSE NISI OMNIBUS 
 INFERIOREM TE ESSE SENTIAS^ ii. 2, 2. 
 
 I TWINE my string of artless words 
 
 Untaught as song of artless birds, 
 
 I forge my stave of artless rime 
 
 Unsuited to the day and time, 
 
 Sufficient unto me to find 
 
 Amusement for the simple mind 
 
 In lowly gardens where I may 
 
 Gain quietness and holiday, 
 
 And worship beauty in the sloe 
 
 Besprinkling all the hedge like snow. 
 
 Or in japonicas that fall 
 
 \'ermiIion from a southern wall, 
 
 Or in the meadowsweet of June 
 
 That dreams of kisses of the moon. 
 
 Right simple is my pleasure, such 
 
 As would appeal not overmuch 
 
 To him who scorns the wood and w^old 
 
 Unwearied in pursuit of gold, 
 
 Nor loves amid the wheat to range 
 
 Unless within the Corn Exchange, 
 
 Thrice happy I, Avell satisfied 
 
 Since in my soul ambition died ! 
 
 Wouldst thou have careless days like me ? 
 
 Learn first of all humility. 
 
 47
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Qui melius scit pati majorem tenebit pacem, 
 
 ii. 3, 3. 
 
 Bent willows shake and whistle in the wind, 
 The tempest tears the ridges from the wave 
 And hurls them it may be across the grave 
 
 "Where I shall lie with never love to mind. 
 
 Torn from their bed the long weeds curl and 
 sway, 
 Earth sickens at the persevering sea, 
 And men begin to dread what doom will be 
 Apportioned them when comes the judgment 
 day. 
 
 Be strong, my heart ; 'tis God's prerogative 
 To still the storm, to mitigate the doom ; 
 As calm from storm, so even from the tomb 
 
 May spring the rose of hope that bids to live. 
 
 48
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Nolle consolari ab aliqua creatura^ ii. 6, 3. 
 
 Man in need of gods to worship framed himself in 
 
 faith and fear 
 Something that surpassed the senses, something 
 
 that he might revere. 
 
 Nobler minds invented Pallas, daring helmsmen gat 
 
 them forth 
 First creating lordly Odin in the mountains of the 
 
 North. 
 
 Baser minds conceived them Ares, baser still in 
 
 Hindustan 
 Built a thousand cruel temples whence there flowed 
 
 the blood of man. 
 
 Even Israel the chosen bowed them unto calves of 
 
 gold, 
 While the voice of thunder downward from 
 
 Jehovah's presence rolled. 
 
 V'ain the work they would accomplish, man- 
 imagined deities 
 
 Waxed more feeble and more futile through the 
 blinded centuries. 
 D 49
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Vainly priests in trembling cities bade the fires of 
 
 Moloch glow, 
 Vainly for propitiation altars reeked in Mexico. 
 
 When at last Supremest Godhead stooping unto 
 
 manhood came 
 Some were there that full of marvel recognised 
 
 their sin and shame. 
 
 Now in half the world the risen glory of the 
 
 Crucified 
 Parts the shadow that for ages veiled the Spirit and 
 
 the Bride. 
 
 50
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Si autem quaeris te ipsum invenies etiam te ipsum, 
 
 ii. 7, 3. 
 
 Man framed a Christ to match his heart 
 Wherein no real Christ had part, 
 And confident in self-conceit 
 He offered to it worship meet. 
 So vigorous the idol grew 
 That true was false and false was true. 
 At last the very Christ became 
 The echo of a bygone name. 
 Man eager for the commonplace 
 Smoothed all the pity from that face, 
 And half the churches chose for ffuide 
 Another than the Crucified. 
 
 51
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 QuANDo Jesus adest totum bonum est, ii. 8, 1. 
 
 The great cathedral bells had ceased to chime, 
 Upon the mighty masses of the trees 
 There fell once more the tremor of the breeze 
 With gentle speech for oak and elm and lime. 
 
 The sun in noontide splendour seemed to climb 
 The ladder of the heavens, by twos and threes 
 Blithe children gathered cowslips in the leas 
 Shadowed by turrets marvellous with time. 
 
 Faint as the shamefast promise of a bride 
 
 Swam through the woods the voice of summertide 
 And overhead the swift and swallow swirled. 
 
 At last there came in musical accord 
 
 The chant of men abased before their Lord, 
 " O God the Son, Redeemer of the world ! " 
 
 52
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Si autem Jesus unum tantum verbum loquitur, 
 
 MAGNA CONSOLATIO SENTITUR, ii. 8, 1. 
 
 As breathes the murmur of a vesper psalm 
 By oleander and by thirsty palm, 
 
 And brings to them who dwell in topic homes 
 Refreshment of the soul with peace and calm ; 
 
 So breathed the voice of Him who died for me 
 Soft in mine ear with sweetest mystery, 
 
 Until the city, towers and spires and domes, 
 Waxed glorious red in proud humility. 
 
 Magnificently slow the music rolled, 
 The splendour and the sumptuousness of gold 
 Were withered into nought before His face. 
 And man was simple as in days of old. 
 
 It is within ourselves if we would hear 
 The thrill of words celestial, deep and clear. 
 And find again an earthly dwelling-place 
 For Him who asks but faith to bring Him near. 
 
 53
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 DiTISSIMUS QUI BENE EST CUM JeSU^ ii. 8, 2, 
 
 If but our souls are right toward Thee, 
 
 Weighed in the balance what are we ? 
 
 We cannot know what pain was Thine, 
 
 The human form, the soul divine. 
 
 We fail to recognise the sin 
 
 That cankers every thought within. 
 
 We cannot even comprehend 
 
 A love that hath not bounds nor end. 
 
 Our Calvarys are very small, 
 
 But Thine — it was the all in all. 
 
 54
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Post hiemem sequitur aestas^ ii. 8, 5. 
 
 After midnight cometh noon, 
 After January June, 
 After storm the tempest calm. 
 After martyrdom the palm, 
 After battle lull of strife, 
 After death eternal life. 
 
 55
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Post tempestatem magna serenitas, ii. 8, 5. 
 
 Behold the soul of horror in thine eyes. 
 
 Shipmaster, driving through the hungry sea ! 
 
 Keen watch and keener liate it has for thee, 
 
 And it has sworn to wreck thine enterprise. 
 Go, grasp thy tiller hard, dismiss thy sighs 
 
 And die a man before the enemy, 
 
 Once canst thou die, but once, then thou art 
 free, 
 
 Then die not twice by fear an thou art wise. 
 Rest comes, the Texel beacon shines ahead. 
 
 The star-grass bent before the beating gale 
 
 Whistles and pipes a thousand mystic tunes. 
 Firm shore at last, warm hearth and silent bed ; 
 
 What matter — when the tankards foam with 
 ale — 
 
 Atlantic surges plunging on the dunes ? 
 
 56
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Ingrati sumus Auctori, ii. 10, 2. 
 
 'Tis no hard task to lend away, 
 
 Ask back, the debtor answers " Nay." 
 
 So stands it in this world of gold 
 
 Where virtue's self is bought and sold. 
 
 We men are debtors to the Christ, 
 
 Are debtors of a debt unpi-iced ; 
 
 Yea, not as money debtors we, 
 
 They need but pay and they are free. 
 
 But men can never satisfy 
 
 The hopeless sum they owe on high. 
 
 And worst of all few care to know 
 
 How grew the debt, how much they owe.
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 PaUCI IGNOMINIAM CRUCIS SEQUUNTUR, ii. 11, 1 . 
 
 Ah ! the pity and the shame. 
 Treason to the Holy Name. 
 Once of old our Lord and King 
 Probed the deep of suffering ; 
 Deepest deep to bear alone 
 Sorrow other than one's own. 
 This our King achieved when He 
 Prostrate in Gethsemane 
 Saw the shadow of the cross 
 Fall on olives grey with moss. 
 Then He won us Paradise 
 By supremest sacrifice, 
 Now in heedless hearts of men 
 Christ is crucified again. 
 Ah ! the pity and the shame, 
 Treason to the Holy Name. 
 
 .58
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 In cruce vita, ii. 12, 2. 
 
 Once in St Agnes came to me 
 
 Beside the reed-embroidered shore 
 What things in future days will be 
 When time's vast wheels will drive no more. 
 
 The shadow of eternity 
 
 Will darken every mortal's door, 
 And far beyond it some will see 
 The gates of pearl, the golden floor. 
 
 What hope for me ? For all was doubt ; 
 In that dim choir I raised a prayer 
 Before the altar and the pyx. 
 
 Then sudden fell one taper out. 
 And in the momentary flare 
 Mine eyes descried the crucifix. 
 
 59
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 NON EST ALIA VIA AD VITAM, ii. 12, 3. 
 
 Amid the Ijssel reeds at eventide 
 Low from a convent chapel comes the chant 
 Of Ave Maris Stella as the dykes 
 Reflect Avith sad farewell the fervent hue 
 Drawn from the sinking sun. The music floats 
 From court to court of cloisters echoing 
 The plash of fountains tinkling in their midst 
 Till all the sweetness of the melody 
 Dissolves as gently as the life that glides 
 Unmarked from earth to heaven in sleep. Thereat 
 The deep of one great soul is moved, a prayer 
 Breaks trembling from his lips : " Immaculate, 
 Regiiia Cceli, make my days to be 
 The consecration of laborious time, 
 Illumined with the light of holiness. 
 Aspiring even to the gate of heaven. 
 There is no love beside the love of God, 
 There are no saints beside the saints of God, 
 So would I write." Tlie while he speaks there stands 
 Close at his side the Queen of heaven herself. 
 In form as of a tall and comely maid, 
 And in his ear she whispers words of peace : 
 " Trust me and be thou king as I am queen. 
 So shalt thou rend the veil of human Hfe, 
 Commanding all the secrets of the world, 
 The sorrow and the gladness of the sea, 
 
 60
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 The splendour and the squalor of the land. 
 
 And mingling honesty and truth in all." 
 
 Into the placid mirror of her eyes 
 
 He looks and finds himself transfigured there. 
 
 As once of old the viking of the North, 
 
 Sated with barren snow and beachless fjord, 
 
 Discovered in the Vineland of the West 
 
 A sunnier world than Odin ever ruled 
 
 Or Thor with thunder shook, and in his heart 
 
 Died all that he had held till then for dear 
 
 In Laxdale or in Skalholt ; from his heart 
 
 So Thomas banishes the memory 
 
 Of that unlearned learning of the past. 
 
 His fingers quiver with a new desire 
 
 To paint in simple words the way of Christ 
 
 Through toil and tribulation to its goal. 
 
 Eternal love had set his soul aflame 
 
 Himself to follow in the path, nor age 
 
 Nor sickness hinder till his years are full. 
 
 Then like October leaves upon a vine 
 
 By Douro or Mondego or the slopes 
 
 Of sheer Estrella, or where monks chant tierce 
 
 In Alcoba9a, tardily his life 
 
 Droops into happy death, and with the dawn 
 
 He sees the glimmer of the gates august, 
 
 He hears the silver trumpets of the guard. 
 
 61
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 DoNEc Deus voluerit oportet ut sustineas, ii. 1 2, 4. 
 
 What shall we be when all is lost 
 Save life and hope of grace divine ? 
 We shall be, Lord, more truly Thine, 
 
 More truthful when we sorrow most. 
 
 Enough that in the firmament 
 The courses of the night and day- 
 Fulfilling their appointed way 
 
 Unteach the soul its discontent. 
 
 And when despairing thoughts besiege 
 The citadel we deemed so strong, 
 To yield were doing our heaven a wrong. 
 
 To doubt were more than sacrilege. 
 
 62
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Crux ergo semper parata est et ubique te expectat, 
 
 ii. 12, 4. 
 
 Thus came the Christ to mountains of the North. 
 
 Beside the dark cascade of Oxara 
 
 All Iceland gathered, and the bearded priests 
 
 Looked very thunder. Thor himself no less 
 
 Lowered with stern eyes when Loki stole away 
 
 The hammer out of Asgard, bringing woe 
 
 To gods and men for ever. Reason was 
 
 For Odin's priests to tremble. By the cliffs 
 
 Sea-smitten, barren, there had passed white sails 
 
 From Norway steered. Such sails King Olaf sent 
 
 Northward from Nidaros, and every sail 
 
 Bore on its front the figure of a cross, 
 
 Blood-red, conspicuous, limned by willing hands 
 
 Whose faith excelled their craft. So messengers 
 
 Told in their headlong haste. King Olaf's men, 
 
 Hjalti and Gizur, by the sea abode 
 
 Two days and nights ; then with their mass-priest 
 
 rode 
 Up to the Mount of Law unfaltering 
 To meet all Iceland. Face to face they stood 
 With eyes that threatened them and spears that 
 
 flashed. 
 Thormod the mass-priest swung his censer high 
 And the sweet vapour lingered on the fell 
 While spake old Snorri, of the failing gods, 
 
 63
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 The oldest priest, who knew that they had failed, 
 
 " O men of Iceland, hearken to my rede ! 
 
 Unmeet it were for us to fight and fight 
 
 And leave our heaths and dwellings desolate. 
 
 Rather one law, one faith, for broken laws 
 
 Breed broken peace ; nay, let the white Christ have 
 
 The temples of the land and all with me 
 
 Baptized in this new faith ; but whoso will 
 
 May sacrifice to Odin in his house 
 
 Until he die ; the middle way is safe. 
 
 O men of Iceland, hearken to my rede ! " 
 
 Then spear struck shield and down the AU-men's-rift 
 
 Slow echoed the acclaim. As fell the night 
 
 It seemed that on the peak of Hekla burned 
 
 Red fire in rolling smoke. And as men gazed 
 
 It turned to the similitude of One 
 
 Who blessed with hands outspread as on a cross, 
 
 And eyes of most divine compassion looked 
 
 Beyond the treeless heaths and flowerless plains 
 
 Upon a people learning painfully 
 
 To guide their footsteps in a nobler path. 
 
 So came the Christ to mountains of the North. 
 
 64
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Regiam viam quae est via sanctae crucis, ii. V2. 6. 
 
 The royal road with mist is white. 
 Below lies earth and its delight, 
 No song of land or sob of sea 
 To break the deep tranquillity 
 Whose very stillness brings affright. 
 I stand like Indian eremite 
 From hopeless dawn to hopeless night. 
 And still the road is open free. 
 The royal road. 
 
 My soul is saddened in despite 
 Of faith and promises, then bright 
 Descends from heaven's grey canopy 
 A hand once marred on Calvary 
 And guides my feet to mount aright 
 The royal road. 
 
 65
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 EXILII SUA POENA EX AMORE CRESCIT, ii. 12, 1. 
 
 QuoMODO sedet sola civitas ! 
 
 I see the banners of an army pass, 
 
 I hear the blast of many trumpets peal, 
 
 The words whereat the squadrons turn and wheel. 
 
 Ah me ! they march to win their fatherland, 
 
 And I — I may not follow with the band. 
 
 Anon there comes the chant of vested priest, 
 
 'Tis his to bear the eucharistic feast 
 
 To one who lies before the gate of death, 
 
 Whose visage hard with labour softeneth, 
 
 For in that solemn hour eternal day 
 
 Illuminates the shadow of the way. 
 
 Ah me ! I cannot go the road M'ith him 
 
 Fanned by the kindly M'ings of Seraphim. 
 
 Too great the love that burns within my breast, 
 
 A love that seeks and fails to find its rest. 
 
 My Lord doth try my love, my loyal heart 
 
 Must needs endure a life from Him apart. 
 
 But exiled I am conscious of a voice 
 
 That comforts me and bids my heart rejoice ; 
 
 " The Christlike nature evermore must be 
 
 Compact of trust and of simplicity, 
 
 And one erstwhile by fleeter feet surpassed 
 
 Perchance with love for guide may not be last." 
 
 m
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Cruce Christi signatus, ii. 12, 9- 
 
 DuLcis arbor coelo grata 
 Vero fructii honorata, 
 Pomum proferens opivunn 
 Contra morsum Evce primmn, 
 Paradisi jios novati, 
 Arcus luminis beati — 
 Ciijus visits in profundo 
 Pacem ptibiicavit mnndo — 
 Almus ramidus et mitis, 
 Fertilis et vera vitis, 
 Moysis tabula secundi, 
 Lyra David redeundi, 
 Redde avians peccatorem 
 Juste meritu7n favorcm, 
 Nam a te pependit Jesus 
 Pro peccatis mundi lapsus. 
 Ave Crux ! nam posuisset 
 Deus vitam sifuisset 
 Nemo pneter me mortalis, 
 Unde laus debetur qualis ! 
 Tantuyn Deus non amasset 
 Tanfum homo ni peccasset.^ 
 
 ^ A translation of the beautiful lines in Calderon's drama 
 La Devodan de la Cruz, Act iii. Sc. 2, beginning with the 
 words Arhol donde el cielo quiso. Of course Calderon lived 
 long after Thomas, but the spirit of the words is in thorough 
 accordance with that of the Imitatio. 
 
 67
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Pacem invenies, ii. 12, 12. (a.) 
 
 Lord, I have loved another law than Thine, 
 My erring feet have strayed in paths unblest, 
 
 Lord, is there mercy for such sin as mine ? 
 "Come unto Me and I will give thee rest." 
 
 Lord, I have scorned with scorn the angels' food. 
 And sat at other feasts a bidden guest ; 
 
 Lord, is there grace for such ingratitude } 
 " Come unto Me and I will give thee rest." 
 
 Lord, I have lived as though this life were all. 
 No chamber for the future in my breast, 
 
 High have I climbed and low must be the fall ; 
 "Come unto Me and I will give thee rest," 
 
 Lord, I have looked for peace and found it not. 
 It may be I shall perish in the quest. 
 
 Doomed to the land where all things are forgot ; 
 "Come unto Me and I will give thee rest." 
 
 Lord, 1 have marked a cloud of darkness hide 
 The seaward sun that threatens from the West, 
 
 Lord, is there hope for me with morning tide .'' 
 " Come unto Me and I will give thee rest." 
 
 68
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Pacem invenies, ii. 12, 12. (6.) 
 
 From West to East the storm-clouds tear their way 
 
 And carry with them toward the Baltic shore 
 
 Wild swans in spreading wedge, and falcons 
 soar, 
 
 Then baffled sink — they dare not strike to-day. 
 Where Nature leads I follow and obey, 
 
 First storm, then peace, first faint and distant 
 roar. 
 
 The monotone of surge, then sails once more 
 
 Adventuring in seas disturbed and gray. 
 Calm as the eyes of one who captains men 
 
 Smiles the great vault of heaven, the sun- 
 edged drifts 
 
 That hid its smile from earth disperse and 
 cease. 
 I look beyond the reeds, the mei'e, the fen. 
 
 While in the mounts of cloud wax wide the 
 rifts, 
 
 Perchance in those blue depths will be my 
 peace. 
 
 69
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 MoRIENTEM TE OPORTET DUCERE VITAM, ii. 12, 14. 
 
 It matters not when we are born, 
 A little space and we are dead, 
 The spirit from the corse is fled 
 
 As grahi is sifted from the corn. 
 
 The earth rolls onward mourning not, 
 Society recovers soon, 
 Before the waning of a moon 
 
 The wisest of us is forgot. 
 
 Our hope is this, to live and pray 
 Although to-morrow we must die, 
 So shall we die to live and lie 
 
 Expectant of the judgment day. 
 
 70
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Beati qui interna penetrant, iii. 1, 1- 
 
 Man learns by discipline of pain 
 
 To estimate his loss as gain, 
 
 For loss and gain are near of kin, 
 
 The loser loses but to win. 
 
 Impatiently each day I mark 
 
 The dawn unswaddled from the dark. 
 
 The world is all disquieted 
 
 Though 'tis no broader than my bed ; 
 But this at least can sickness do, 
 It can create a self anew, 
 'Tis then that for a little space - 
 I meet my own soul face to face. 
 
 71
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Mandata edicunt sed tu juvas ad proficiendum, 
 
 iii. 2, 2. 
 
 Of old the prophets prophesied, 
 They prophesied of things to be, 
 But in their message none might see 
 
 A way of life or name of guide. 
 
 Till with the centuries there came 
 A more than prophet to the earth. 
 Faith sprang equipped to nobler birth 
 
 Supported by the Holy Name. 
 
 The misdirected faith tliat veers 
 
 Between the poles of Christless creeds 
 Dies at the touch of Him who speeds 
 
 The diapason of the spheres. 
 
 72
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 FiLI, AMBULA CORAM ME IN VERITATE^ ui. 4-, 1. 
 
 Walk with truth and thou wilt find 
 Cheerful heart and easy mind, 
 They who wander from her plough 
 Furrows on their careless brow. 
 Surely they who wander worst 
 Must have loved her at the first, 
 Guarding not the steps that stray 
 Farther from her day by day. 
 As the web of years grows thin 
 Error past makes present sin. 
 Not by will do they pursue 
 What is false for what is true, 
 Rather do they lose the light 
 Misinterpreting the right. 
 
 73
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Amor vult esse sursum neque ulus infimis 
 REBUS retineri, iii. 5, 3. 
 
 It chanced that Love and Faith upon a day 
 
 Contended in their speech, and Love spake thus : 
 " We rule the life of man, but which of us 
 Within that life assumes the broader sway ? " 
 
 " I do," said Faith, " I ever watch and pray. 
 With gaze on worlds unseen and mai'vellous. 
 Ennobling hearts of men, not tyrannous 
 Like Love, whose care is but that men obey." 
 
 " Not so," said Love, " for thou outlivest not 
 Disproof and disillusion, I endure 
 Beyond the grave, beyond all mutable things." 
 
 Then gat they them to flight, serene and sure, 
 Till Faith passed out of ken, but like a spot 
 Against the sun still showed Love's purple wings. 
 
 74
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Amor ex Deo natus est, iii. 5, 3. 
 
 By Love we know that God is God, 
 He was the first created thing, 
 Faint odours still around Him cling 
 
 Of flowers by Eve in Eden trod. 
 
 His locks retain their primal gold 
 For all his life had been so long, 
 In battle with the hosts of wrong 
 
 Love lacks the time for growing old. 
 
 God gave command to Love to teach, 
 
 Not always gentle master he. 
 
 Love hath his art and mystery 
 And divers discipline for each. 
 
 But sorrow doth he most approve, 
 
 Strong souls that sorrowed have confessed 
 That they have learned the lesson best 
 
 DistilHng out of sorrow love. 
 
 75
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Cantem amoris canticum, iii. 5, 6. 
 
 Love that lives and love that dies. 
 Love that comes and love that flies, 
 Love that wins his way too late, 
 Even love that turns to hate ; 
 Thus the evil and the good 
 All the world hath understood. 
 Christian, thou hast nought to dread. 
 Love for thee is daily bread, 
 Love of Christ constraineth thee, 
 Wherefoi'e art thou truly free. 
 
 76
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Sine dolore non vivitur in amore, iii, 5, 7. 
 
 Through tears come gleams of things that are 
 
 above, 
 They that have known not sorrow know not love, 
 And it may be the dawn of our delight 
 Is rosier for the weeping of the night. 
 
 77
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 QUANDO ENIM GRATIA DeI VENIT AD HOMINEM TUNC 
 POTENS FIT AD OMNIA^ iii. 8, 5. 
 
 Beneath man's weakness lies the strength of God 
 
 If by His grace the perilous paths are trod. 
 
 Lift up thine head, O man, and thou wilt see 
 
 Celestial light accompanying thee. 
 
 So will be shown thee in the darkest gorge 
 
 The flame where thou wilt hammer in this forge 
 
 Deeds linked with deeds until the chain be 
 
 wrought 
 To such design as thou hast never thought. 
 
 78
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 Datur autem consolatio divina ut homo fortior 
 
 SIT AD SUSTINENDUM ADVERSA, iii, 9, 8. 
 
 QouM lugemus in dolore 
 Tristi supplicantes ore, 
 
 Panis vitce, yniserere. 
 Majus onus Tu tulisti, 
 Quanquam Dens Tu fuisti, 
 
 Vera Vitis, miserere. 
 
 Quum amatos nos defietmis, 
 Audi, Jesu, quid oreinus. 
 
 Fill David, miserere, 
 Olim Larjaro abundas 
 Oculis judisti undas, 
 
 Radix Jesse, miserere, 
 
 Qimmjacemus onerati 
 Magno pondere peccati. 
 
 Bone Pastor, miserere. 
 Morituri cor latronis 
 Tranquillasti verbis bonis, 
 
 Agnus Dei, juiserere, 
 
 Qimm calcamus leti vias 
 Gladius et scuttwi fias, 
 
 Leo Juda, miserere. 
 Nostra requies sit grata 
 Apud beatorian prata, 
 
 Princeps Pads, miserere. 
 
 79
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Quid retribuam tibi pro gratia ista ? iii. 10, 2, 
 
 What palace of the sons of Shem 
 Compares with thee, Jerusalem? 
 But 'tis not for themselves we prize 
 The domes and minarets that rise 
 In all their beauty to outlast 
 The dead who knew a nobler past. 
 It is not for themselves, it is 
 That place and scene stand wholly His 
 Whose eyes with tears divine were wet 
 When lingered He on Olivet, 
 Prophetic of appointed fate 
 And alien cohorts at the gate. 
 For us the sinless life was spent. 
 For us the seamless robe was rent, 
 For us the bitter cup was quaffed, 
 For us the form of God was doffed. 
 And it was here ; Jerusalem, 
 Thou hast no memories like them. 
 
 80
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 ECCE OMNIA TUA SUNT QUAE HABEO ET UNDE TIBI 
 
 SEttvio, iii. 10, 3. 
 
 For league on league inexorable space, 
 For league on league illimitable sand, 
 Sahara calls and with her fiery hand 
 She beckons, 'tis for us to ride apace. 
 
 Southward we hie us with obedient face, 
 Accomplishing her unexpressed command, 
 Into the mystic splendour of a land 
 Where God is all and man holds lowly place. 
 
 Nought save the Lord — the desert mountains gleam 
 With colour such as in a poet's dream 
 The golden age outspread on eai'th and sea. 
 
 Nought save the Lord — faint clouds that swim the 
 skies 
 Are shadows of the gates of Paradise ; 
 In this wild silence. Lord, remember me. 
 
 81
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Quid dabo tibi pro omnibus istis 
 MiLLiBUS BONIS? iii. 10. 4. 
 
 VERi fons honoris, 
 Refugimn doloris, 
 Spes grata peccatoris, 
 Tu ipsam vitam dabas, 
 Tu tantum me amahas 
 Piaculuvupie stahas 
 Pro me ad thronmn Dei 
 Qua omnes timent ret 
 Splendorem faciei. 
 Neqiiitia start natus, 
 Quid Tibi rcddarn grains ? 
 " Da Cor," Tu es effalus. 
 Do Tibi cor, indignus 
 Ad hoc prabcndum pignus, 
 Sed semper Tu bcnignus. 
 O mi sere pud end ton, 
 O peniltis drjU'udum 
 Hoc donum oJfere7idu7n ! 
 At accipe, nam quale 
 Nunc possu7n Jero tale, 
 O cor anlixjimm, vale ! 
 En sunimi peccatoris 
 liealtim cor aiiioris 
 In se^npiternis oris ! 
 82
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Delida (piam imrmmda ! 
 Sed Jiuit quam profunda 
 Cruoris Chrisli unda ! 
 Laiis Tibi, a/ma stella, 
 Laus, portus in procella, 
 Laiis, scutum inter bella ! 
 
 83
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 O AMPLECTENDUM ET SEMPER OPTANDUM SEUVITIUM ! 
 
 iii. 10, 6. 
 
 My footsteps trod the drift of ocean weed, 
 Brown border of the treacherous Zuyder Zee, 
 The while the glory of the strong young day 
 Smote downward on the low and level mead. 
 
 Two broad-beamed cobles tacked with tardy speed. 
 Conveying shoreward herring, cod, and ray. 
 For fisher folk must labour while they may, 
 If nights be chill 'tis not for them to heed. 
 
 Methought their honest faces bore the mark 
 Of such as fished for men in Galilee, 
 Fulfilling Christ's commandment, " Follow Me." 
 
 His chosen followers were brave and stark, 
 So would I be, could I on sea or lake 
 Become the humblest fisher for His sake. 
 
 84
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 O SACER STATUS RELIGIOSI FAMULATUS ui. 10, 6. 
 
 I SEE the birthday of romance, 
 
 I hear the glorious coursers prance, 
 
 But not for me. 
 I see the gleam of spear and shield, 
 I hear the trumpet on the field, 
 
 But not for me. 
 I see the splendid tournament, 
 I hear the tear of armour rent, 
 
 But not for me. 
 I see the banners of the East, 
 I hear the tumult of the feast. 
 
 But not for me. 
 I see the cloister damp and gray, 
 I hear the reapers in the hay, 
 
 Enough for me. 
 I see the crucifix on high, 
 I hear the contrite sinner sigh, 
 
 Enough for me. 
 I see the gates of pearl all dim, 
 I hear the song of Seraphim, 
 
 Enough for me. 
 I see new light on mead and mere, 
 I hear what once I could not hear. 
 
 Enough for me. 
 
 85
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 UtINAM VEL UNO DIE DIGNUM SERVITIUM EXHIBERK 
 SUFFICEREM ! iii. 11, 4. 
 
 Earth hath her splendour of the meads of May 
 When wealth of hawthorn opens tree by tree, 
 And from it draws the sage and prudent bee 
 His sweet provision for a winter day. 
 
 The soul hath too her spring what time the gray 
 Of heavy thoughts disperses full and free 
 Before the sun of hope and sympathy 
 Until she goes rejoicing on her way. 
 
 Too few the weeks she wears the fragile flower 
 Of worship and of charity ; alas, 
 The gayest flower must fill the deepest tomb ! 
 
 Her spring endures no more than earth's, each hour 
 She mourns to mark the marvellous beauty pass, 
 The brief May morning vigil of her doom. 
 
 86
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Hoc SIGNUM CRUCIS ERIT IN CffiLO, ui. 12, 1. 
 
 Upon the headland stood I, all its face 
 Was lighted w ith the laughing of the sea, 
 What time the sun beneath the canopy 
 Of Ocean seemed to seek his nightly place. 
 
 Before me swirled the eddies of the race, 
 
 Behind me whispered storm-bent tree to tree. 
 The West was all apparelled gorgeously 
 In trembling hues of pearl and chrysoprase. 
 
 The little fishing town that lined the beach 
 Glowed like a fairy city, and the hoofs 
 Of wondering riders halted on the down. 
 
 Majestic as a thought surpassing speech 
 
 Twin stars arose that poised above the roofs 
 Assumed the semblage of a cross and crown. 
 
 87
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 De duobus malis minus est semper eligendum, 
 iii. 12, 2. 
 
 Its myriad eyes disarming mine, 
 That watchful and prophetic sea 
 Hath smiles and tears in sympathy, 
 
 Providing joy or anodyne. 
 
 " There are two woes thou hast to dread, 
 Myself and earth," so murmurs it, 
 " Oh let my soul with thine be knit," 
 
 So answered I, " when I am dead.' 
 
 Its murmur is to me a song ; 
 
 If I must choose between two ills, 
 I choose as my old comrade wills, 
 
 If I do else I choose awrong. 
 
 88
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Nihil et nihil, iii. 14, 8. 
 
 There is One Judge whose sentences are just. 
 
 One realm where all the citizens are leal, 
 One throne where men appear because they must. 
 One court without appeal. 
 
 Away, O man, with all thy vain defence ! 
 
 'Tis futile to have been no homicide 
 When on the earth thou hadst no shameful sense 
 Of envy or of pride. 
 
 Thou didst not steal, but thou didst speak no word 
 To save thy friend when grasping hands were 
 nigh. 
 Thou didst not lie, but wast thou ever heard 
 To thwart another's lie .'' 
 
 Supremest Wisdom and divinest Love 
 
 W^ill find a way where human justice fails, 
 For in the judgment of the court above 
 'Tis mercy that prevails. 
 
 Abandon all, O man, save humbleness. 
 
 Unveil thyself to thy most secret thought. 
 Abased beneath the scornful stars confess 
 
 That thou art nought and nought. 
 
 89
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Major est sollicitudo tua pro me quam omnis 
 cura quam ego gerere possum pro me, ui. 17, 2. 
 
 " Such is the nature of the Gods that they 
 Enjoy unbroken peace in endless day ; 
 Remote from things of men they find relief 
 In ignorance of peril and of grief ; 
 Man's aid is nought to Gods who are so strong, 
 Pleased not by merit, angered not by wrong." ^ 
 
 So spake the pagan poet, for to him 
 
 The world was chaos and the truth was dim. 
 
 Like toilers dazzled by a tropic sun 
 
 He found the many while he missed the One. 
 
 Unhappy he, compose he verse or not, 
 
 Who tells the woild he is by heaven forgot ! 
 
 Sufficient is the heart of man to cope 
 
 With all disasters if he hold to hope, 
 
 But dark the path of him who dares to crave 
 
 Annihilation in a hopeless grave, 
 
 Who dares the jeopardy of death alone 
 
 With never hand to help him save his own. 
 
 * Lucretius, ii. 645. 
 
 90
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Si pati non vis recusas coronari, iii. ip, 4. 
 
 I SAW beneath the bridge of life the dead, 
 The dead that are and shall be, dim and dun 
 Long rain-clouds rolled forsaken by the sun, 
 And daffodils bent low for drearihead. 
 
 Some of the hosts were virgin, some were wed, 
 Some ceased from days ere days v.ere well begun. 
 Some hardly ere a century had run. 
 Some heaped up treasure, some made prayer 
 for bread. 
 
 In this were all alike that all laid down 
 
 The sorrow of their mortal years with sorrow 
 As one forgoes a joy that may not be. 
 
 The cross is near and visible, the crown 
 Far off to such as must assume to-morrow 
 The burden of their immortality. 
 
 91
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Nam pati et vexari pro te valde salubre est 
 ANIMAE meae, iii. 19, 5. 
 
 For thy soul's health, unheeding man, beware 
 Lest thou refuse the stripes appointed thee 
 In pride disguised to seem humility 
 That in the judgment will be pride laid bare. 
 
 For thy soul's health. Who art thou that dost dare 
 Decline the burden of the chains to be 
 The instruments whereby thou wilt be free 
 From thoughts that are thy standing sin and 
 snare ? 
 
 For thy soul's health. Look upward till thy gaze 
 Beholds the vision of the Crucified 
 And light celestial tints the years and days. 
 
 For thy soul's health. Yea, shame thee of thy 
 pride 
 And let thy breath be sweet with songs of praise 
 That thou by stripes and chains are fully tried. 
 
 92
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Saepe parva res est quae me dejicit et 
 
 CONTRISTAT, ui. 20, 1. 
 
 The little wounds devise the pain, 
 The little thoughts disturb the brain, 
 
 Through them we pay our scot ; 
 Disasters of heroic mould 
 One bears, and still one's brow is bold 
 
 As though one suffered not. 
 
 93
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Sine te nulla erit laeta dies et mora, iii. 91, 4. 
 
 For mCj O Lord, there is outspread 
 
 The earth and all its lustihead. 
 
 The hue of flower and butterfly. 
 
 The glory of the sea and sky. 
 
 Still evermore they whisper me, 
 
 " The joy of all is joy of Thee." 
 
 No perfect rose of perfect days 
 
 But breathes forth incense to Thy praise. 
 
 No autumn wood but writes Thy name 
 
 In maple leaves that die aflame ; 
 
 The kindly lips of Nature call, 
 
 " Without Thee nothing, with Thee all." 
 
 94-
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Laus ergo tibi et gloria, O Patris Sapientia, 
 iii. 21, 7. 
 
 Divine omnipotence created me, 
 Primeval love and wisdom infinite. 
 Whence burn in me faint embers of the light 
 From heaven's high portal and its golden key. 
 
 Then on my youth, as on the autumn sea 
 
 The stammering thunder breaks, so smote the 
 
 blight 
 Of world and life and sin, and what was bright 
 Grew dark with shadows of the years to be. 
 
 Still are there days wherein the silent heart 
 Communing imperceptibly with God 
 Marks good and bad to choose the better part. 
 
 Then weary feet that so long time have trod 
 The dusty floors of factory or mart 
 Step strong and free as on the mountain sod. 
 
 95
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 NON TIBl SIT CURAE DE MAGNI NOMINIS UMBRA, 
 
 iii. 24, 2. 
 
 Deep strikes his share who ploughs the field of fame. 
 Wherein is shed the seed that tardily 
 Through rigour of the winter grows to be 
 Divine surprise of flowers that bear a name. 
 
 A name of such as limneth bold of aim 
 
 The glow and gleam and glamour of the sea 
 
 Or culls in song the immortality 
 
 Of infinite sweetness from the world's great frame. 
 
 A frame, ah me ! that sometimes holds the grave 
 Of them who sowed the seed and held the plough 
 While others reaped the fulness of the field. 
 
 The field where sickle-ripe the harvests wave 
 More fertile for the tombs beneath and yield 
 The heaviest ears hard by the burial howe. 
 
 96
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Pacem omnes desiderant, iii. 25, 1. 
 
 O HILLS that guard the glory of the sea 
 Where round smooth rowans mountain ivy twines. 
 Speak comfort unto me 
 By voice of swaying pines. 
 
 O river meadows ringed with reed and moss 
 Where glow young blossoms fed with April dew. 
 
 Help me to bear my cross 
 
 By memory of you. 
 
 O waterfalls that leap from height to height 
 Where rainbows ever vanish and appear, 
 To my dark day be light 
 And set your rainbow here. 
 
 O world that art but God's reflected face, 
 Fulfil what thou didst promise in the past. 
 
 And from thy store of grace 
 
 Bring peace to me at last. 
 
 G 97
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Abundantia pacis perfrueris, iii, 25, 5. 
 
 In this ambrosial sense of peace 
 I feel the world's great passion cease, 
 Nought but the chariot wheels of God 
 Cut tracks upon the springing sod ; 
 The balsam of the kingly pines, 
 The odour of the hedgerow bines 
 Restore with artless force and skill 
 The doubting soul and wavering will. 
 And haunting ghosts of thought are laid 
 In silence of a sunny glade. 
 
 98
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Hoc OPUS EST PERFECTI VIRI, iii. 26, 1. 
 
 Not lightly did the ancients say 
 To labour is indeed to pray, 
 And he who with a single heart 
 Enriches earth by pen or art 
 Perchance is on a higher shelf 
 Than cloistered cowl that saves itself. 
 Work with thy hand and with thy brain, 
 By work rose tower and hall and fane, 
 Proclaiming in their sculptured page 
 The patience of a simpler age ; 
 'Twas lives that passed away unknown 
 That stamped its beauty on Cologne, 
 And daily labour waxed sublime 
 In handicraft of Hildesheim. 
 
 99
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Nisi quis ab omnibus creaturis fuerit expeditus, 
 non poterit libere intendere divinis, iii. 31, 1. 
 
 Provide thee time to set thine eyes 
 On some right worthy enterprise, 
 It will avail to turn thy thought 
 From what is sold and what is bought, 
 To hide the meanness of the mart 
 Beneath the golden dome of art. 
 And with a nobler music drown 
 The sordid clamour of the town. 
 So day by day thy spirit train 
 To echo an immortal strain, 
 So wilt thou cease to fall and fall 
 Until thou sink to be the thrall 
 Of humble aims and selfish things 
 And profitless imaginings 
 Uncertain as Atlantic seas 
 Tumultuous in the Orcades. 
 
 100
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Stat super haec mutabilia sapiens et bene doctus 
 IN spiritu, iii. 34, 1. 
 
 He is not bound by our conventions planned 
 
 To gird all genius with an iron band, 
 
 He hath respect to laws, but only laAvs 
 
 Whereof the good of man is final cause. 
 
 He bears no malice if one do him wrong, 
 
 Forgiveness is the token of the strong, 
 
 And if one give him aid he doth not let 
 
 His conscience slumber or his mind forget. 
 
 He is so strong he will not brook a nay. 
 
 And when he speaks his way becomes our way, 
 
 His words convince for they are true and right, 
 
 The simple truth has not yet lost its might. 
 
 He stands resolved like Dionysius 
 
 When Paul was mocked in Areopagus, 
 
 Or as among sere woods where leaves have been 
 
 The hardy laurel still stands evergreen. 
 
 Of coming spring it bears the hue and sign 
 
 When snows of Yule lie piled upon the pine. 
 
 101
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 O LUX PERPETUAj CUNCTA CREATA TRANSCENDENS 
 
 LUMiNA, iii. 34, 3. 
 
 As once Ezekiel, sad with captive shame, 
 Saw dazzling wheels and whirling tires of flame, 
 Until the tawny torrent of Chebar 
 Waxed limpid and each ripple was a star ; 
 As once beside the stream of Eunoe 
 The Tuscan singer saw the mystery 
 Of golden candlesticks that seemed to glide. 
 With movement slower than a shamefast bride ; 
 So man may see on some autumnal niffht 
 The heaven of heavens lie naked to his sight, 
 And deem that on the barren down he feels 
 The rumble of immortal chariot wheels. 
 Then with the tears that eyes are moved to shed 
 When hearts are full of joy, he holds his head 
 Bowed eastward like Ravenna's labouring pines 
 Before a tempest from the Apennines. 
 
 102
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 HUMILEM IN PUNCTO ELEVO MENTEM UT PLURE3 
 AETERNAE VERITATIS CAPIAT RATIONES, iu. 43, 3. 
 
 A LIFE that has no history, 
 A death that has no mystery, 
 A passing with celerity 
 To the eternal verity, 
 Fulfilling such conditions 
 I satisfy ambitions. 
 
 103
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 MULTA ETIAM OPORTET SURDA AURE PERTRANSIRE ET 
 QUAE TUAE PACIS SUNT MAGIS COGITARE, iii. 44, 1. 
 
 Nought but Thy praises. Lord, shall fill my mouth, 
 I gaze on Thee, Thee only, casting forth 
 
 The visions of the roses of the South, 
 The visions of the lilies of the North. 
 
 Mine ears wait but for Thine encouragement, 
 What matter that the lark along the height 
 
 Of heaven will voice his song and grey-stoled Lent 
 Will doff her weeds to wear the Paschal white ? 
 
 My soul expects the S})irit and the Bride ; 
 
 The glories of the earth in spring attire, 
 The sunlit splendour of the Eastertide, 
 
 Divert not eyes that upward still aspire. 
 
 101.
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Ibi sum ubi cogitatio mea est, iii. 45, 8. 
 
 The moments of intolerable thought 
 
 Gain vigour with the passing of the years. 
 
 Love dies amid inexorable tears, 
 
 Of once ambitious youth survives there nought. 
 
 At price too high maturity is bought, 
 
 For what were hopes transform themselves to fears, 
 Life's music smites on dull and careless ears, 
 Imagination fails to come unsought. 
 
 Long, long the road hath been that leads at last 
 To that deep wood where gleams the sword of fate 
 Amid the hopelessness of yew and pine. 
 
 Around me float dim figures from the past ; 
 They darken earth and sky and dominate 
 The sombre sea that hath its moods like mine. 
 
 105
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Inspice te melius, iii. 46, 2. 
 
 There fell a rain of petals to the earth 
 
 And stored the air with sweets ; a cuckoo broke 
 
 With his monotonous soliloquy 
 
 The peace of summertide, his note was borne 
 
 Through pendent willows and majestic elms 
 
 Out to the long blue mountains. Then the 
 
 world 
 Again was silent. All the anchorite 
 Within me rose and blessed the voiceless calm. 
 Alone I ruled that fruitful country side, 
 Alone I set its laws that all should keep, 
 The abbot of a convent roofed with leaves. 
 Its cloisters framed of chestnut avenues. 
 Its cells of bracken glades. There hour by 
 
 hour 
 I mused the long sweet day and laid my heart 
 Unclad to heaven, and in its nakedness 
 How mean it seemed and paltry, all its thoughts 
 Terrestrial and its inspiration self! 
 Then came a quiver of the topmost oaks 
 And waked the flowers from sleep ; it seemed as 
 
 though 
 The chariot of the Lord imperiously 
 Drave onward to the East and witli it drew 
 Mean things and base, till looking once again 
 Within my heart I found a little space, 
 
 1 Of)
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Alas, how little I occupied with God 
 Instead of self. Far up the mountain side 
 There^crept a light as of the smile of God, 
 It was the promise of a nobler hope. 
 
 107
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 LUCET QUIDEM SANCTIS PERPETUA CLARITATE SPLEN- 
 DIDA, SED NONNISI A LONGE ET PER SPECULUM 
 PEREGRINANTIBUS IN TERRA, iii. 48, 1. 
 
 O GATES of pearl that hold within 
 
 The righteous doers purged of sin, 
 
 When comes the day that through the bars 
 
 Of prison men will see the stars, 
 
 The day in some dim future clime 
 
 That earth Avill shine with light sublime. 
 
 The day that all with one accord 
 
 Will tread the highway of the Lord ? 
 
 Perchance 'tis nearer than we think. 
 
 The water rises to the brink, 
 
 Ignoble things are swept aside 
 
 Before the Spirit and the Bride, 
 
 And individual voices cease 
 
 Before the world's great song of peace. 
 
 108
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Opto inhaerere cffiLESTiBus, ui, 48, 4. 
 
 " Then like a rose of purest white there stood 
 Revealed to me the blessed host whom Christ 
 Won and espoused with His most precious 
 blood." 1 
 So wrote the master, from himself enticed 
 To splendid visions by his fancy wrought 
 Of emerald and pearl and amethyst ; 
 Of thrones and realms created out of nought, 
 Of ancient music and of song austere, 
 Of mysteries made definite in thought. 
 Ah me ! the master speaks, I can but hear 
 And bow in homage, it is not for me 
 To summon for my verse a tone as clear ; 
 A tone as of the chanting of the sea, 
 That ruffled by the breezes of the West 
 Draws from the rocks their hidden harmony. 
 This can I do, my soul can be possessed 
 Undoubtingly with that magnificence 
 That Dante saw and find therein her rest. 
 My soul can sail on wings of fancy hence 
 Until she make her harbour in that rose, 
 Transformed into celestial excellence, 
 A petal of the flower that cannot fade. 
 
 ^ Dante, Par.y xxxi. 1. 
 
 109
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Adveni, c(ELEstis suavitas, et fugiat a facie tua 
 
 OMNIS IMPURITAS, iii, 58, 5. 
 
 Lord of the earth and Ruler of the ocean, 
 
 The spheres are but the effluence of Thy thought. 
 
 And sun and planets in their daily motion 
 
 Proclaim the perfectness that Thou hast wrought. 
 
 Perchance that in our souls degenerated 
 
 That thought supreme may mix with sordid 
 things 
 
 And hold the lamp of glory uncreated 
 Amid the gloom of base imaginings. 
 
 We are not wholly vile where Thou hast lighted 
 In humble hearts the semblance of a flame 
 
 That shines a beacon to the feet benighted 
 And loth to quit the pathway of their shame. 
 
 110
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 FiLI, SAEPE IGNIS ARDET SED SINE FUMO FLAMMA 
 NON ASCENDITj iii. 49, 2. 
 
 Man labours only in the light, 
 
 But Nature's rule is not the same, 
 And in the hills volcanic flame 
 
 Outshines the very stars by night. 
 
 Alike in March and August hours 
 Earth marvels at the constant fire 
 That glows from Hekla like a pyre 
 
 And smites to death the puny flowers. 
 
 As is the smoke of Hekla such 
 Are they who spread a veil before 
 The landscape of the heavenly shore 
 
 And knowing nought are sure of much. 
 
 Ill
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 HaBEBIS semper VOLUNTATEM TUAM in CffiLIS, 
 
 iii. 49, 6. 
 
 Autumnal mists were lifted for a space, 
 And in the highest heaven arose afar 
 The silver splendour of the vesper star 
 
 With the last sunset warm upon its face. 
 
 The scant leaves folded them to nightly rest, 
 They saw not what was granted me to see, 
 Towers Avhose foundations is eternity, 
 
 A fairy city builded in the West. 
 
 The roof within her palisades was trod 
 
 By feet of them I loved, some gone before, 
 Some saved for earth, still never one but bore 
 
 A face the mirror of the smile of God. 
 
 Beyond them shone the marble steps whereby 
 The way lies upward to the great white throne, 
 'Twas but the nether steps I saw, for none 
 
 May see their crown and summit ere he die. 
 
 Light after light brake forth till all the gray 
 Of that October eventide grew like 
 To summer noon, what time the mowers strike 
 
 The whetstone on the scythe, knce-dcep in hay. 
 
 11'2
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 A sound of voices more than mortal came 
 In musical accord, and from the trees 
 Shook brown and yellow leaves ; the memories 
 
 Of that soft song still stir my heart to flame. 
 
 The great gates opened once and gave to view 
 A colour as of some enchanted rose 
 That in its every petal doth enclose 
 
 A haunting sweetness matching well its hue. 
 
 The great gates closed and it was dark again, 
 And all was silence ; to my heart there crept 
 The comfort of the Son of Man who wept, 
 
 For He had pity on the sons of men. 
 
 Ah God, was this Thy city ? Was it mine 
 To gaze upon the palace of the King 
 Girt with its mystic pinnacles, and fling 
 
 Forth from myself all thought that was not Thine ? 
 
 H 113
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Splendebat lucerna tua supek caput ejus, iii. 50, 2. 
 
 As in some vast cathedral choir in Spain 
 
 The solemn wailing of the Tenebrae 
 
 Swims through the orange groves, and tower and 
 tree 
 
 Show dim through incense on the arid plain ; 
 Then wath the psalms the lights wax few and wane, 
 
 Each timed to each, till burn at last but three — 
 
 And two — and one — one respited to be 
 
 Chief altar flame of Easter in the fane ; 
 So Thou, O Lord, my one and only light, 
 
 Art beacon to the mystic Easter land 
 
 Where feet of man may stand above the night. 
 Methinks I see upon the glowing strand 
 
 Of that fair country gates serene and white 
 
 Illumed for ever by a pierced hand. 
 
 114
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 C(ELESTIS MEDICUS ANIMARUM, iii. 50, 5. 
 
 Can these bones live, O Son of Man ? 
 O Lord, if Thou dost animate 
 The dust to what it was of late, 
 
 In very truth they can, they can. 
 
 The Great Physician ever hath 
 A skill denied to human hand, 
 Attaining even to the land 
 
 Where death stores up his aftermath. 
 
 So did the Christ to earth recall 
 The life entombed at Bethany, 
 What time He marked on Calvary 
 
 The shadoAv of the future fall. 
 
 H* 115
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Natura invite vult MORI, iii. 54, 3. 
 
 Love is the gate of liberty, 
 Through it the free ascend, 
 
 For they are blind who will not see 
 And death is not the end. 
 
 And love endures beyond the tomb, 
 Forgetting none whose trust 
 
 Is in the King of love, by whom 
 Death means not dust to dust. 
 
 116
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Gratia ad Deum cuncta reducit unde originalitek 
 
 EMANANT, iii. 54f, l6. 
 
 There is a sense of right in human kind, 
 It answers to the good that seekers find 
 
 In every mortal lieart by digging deep, 
 As a great forest answers to the wind. 
 
 From heaven at birth of every man there fell 
 A spark from God's own fire, ofttimes the spell 
 Of that high marvel stirs the souls that sleep. 
 And then heart signals heart that all is well. 
 
 117
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Nam modica vis quae remansit est tanquam 
 
 SCINTILLA QUAEDAM LATENS IN CINERE, ui. 55, 2. 
 
 The chains of God have strength to link 
 Experience with the age of youth 
 
 When guileless hearts were fond to think 
 That they who listen hear the truth. 
 
 The seal of God hath stamped on man 
 His image that will long outlast 
 
 The arches built of time that span 
 The stream of present and of past. 
 
 The torch of God is red with flame 
 That lights the way of life unsought, 
 
 And even in the hour of shame 
 Is beacon unto nobler thought. 
 
 The love of God is deep and wide, 
 Therein is such abundant grace 
 
 That while in man its seeds abide 
 He cannot fall to wholly base. 
 
 118
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Quae est fiducia mea ? iii. 59, 1 • 
 
 'Tis of ourselves that we are fools or wise, 
 Faith stands before us with her honest eyes. 
 There is a speech in them for all to read, 
 A speech interpreted by them that heed. 
 Alas ! 'tis granted unto few to know 
 The road that searchers after Faith should go. 
 Thus shall ye know it. In the tower about 
 The gate that opens on the road stands Doubt, 
 And there in silence sits she days on days 
 With passionless unsympathetic gaze, 
 Whereby she awes weak souls who in her view 
 Faith's very self not Faith's own handmaid true. 
 Strong souls put questions to her, knowing well 
 How none but she the way to Faith can tell. 
 Through Doubt it is that we Faith's grace receive, 
 For if one doubt not, how shall he believe ? 
 
 no
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Totum"infirmum et instabile invenio quidquid 
 
 EXTRA TE CONSPICIO, ill. 59, S. 
 
 I PACED the dunes and sandy shores. 
 The fringes of the Zuyder Zee, 
 And heard beyond the driving spray 
 
 The monotone of galley oars. 
 
 Awhile upon my ear there fell 
 
 Above the gannet's mournful scream 
 The groaning of the belfry beam 
 
 Down-weighted by the convent bell. 
 
 A night prophetic of despair ! 
 I, Thomas, of the ominous name 
 Had wandered far and to my shame 
 
 Deemed things that were not things that were. 
 
 I saw the horror of the day 
 
 Wherein I doubted of the Christ, 
 And kept again the awful tryst 
 
 With such as stole my heart away. 
 
 But, God be thanked, the shadows pass, 
 Again I grasp the cross of old, 
 And in repentant hands I hold 
 
 The wafer of the blessed mass. 
 120
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 God hath been kinder unto me 
 
 Than was my doubting heart, at last 
 I know that all my doubt is past, 
 
 Doubt is the root of certainty. 
 
 121
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 DiniGE PER VIAM PACIS AD PATRIAM PERPETUAE 
 CLARITATIS, iii. BQ, 4. 
 
 Betwixt the midnight and the morning came 
 SubHmest thoughts that bore me far away 
 Beyond the dimness of the rising day 
 And touched the common things of hfe with flame. 
 
 Perchance my dreams had been of love and fame, 
 Perchance of loss of them — I dare not say — 
 The thoughts that followed were so high that they 
 Imperious put all meaner dreams to shame. 
 
 The spiritual realm where Christ is King 
 
 Appeared a space, then vanished all too soon, 
 Until once more clanged fast the prison bars. 
 
 I saw the hem of God's own garment swing 
 Athwart the glory of the sun and moon, 
 Bejewelled with the planets and the stars. 
 
 132
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 Amen, iii. 59, 4. 
 
 The book is finished, with it go 
 
 Things more and deeper than I know. 
 
 My soul unveiled in page on page 
 
 Perchance may speak to age on age 
 
 So distant that the critical 
 
 May doubt if I have lived at all. 
 
 Ah me, a book has power indeed ! 
 
 For good or ill they read who read. 
 
 Completed it is like a light, 
 
 Here burning low, there strong at height. 
 
 Or like the sea in varying form, 
 
 Here calm and there the smiting storm. 
 
 'Tis thus in life ; none dare to say 
 
 If vice or virtue win the day 
 
 Until the hour of death be come, 
 
 When strife of slanderous tongues grows dumb. 
 
 Life struggles blindly to its goal 
 
 Condemned or pardoned by its whole. 
 
 May He, the Lord of pity, send 
 
 Solace and peace before the end ! 
 
 May He from whom no thought is hid 
 
 Show mercy to the deeds I did ! 
 
 In mercy I have put my trust, 
 
 In mercy, handmaid of the just. 
 
 123
 
 THOMAS OF KEMPEN 
 
 O INEFFABILIS GRATIA, iv. 13, 3. 
 
 {Reasons for not writing on texts taken from the 
 Fourth BooU). 
 
 Words fit the plain but fail upon the height, 
 Then knowing well how words are limited 
 I would avoid the judgment on my head 
 For such as write what man should never write. 
 
 One day upon my soul may break the light 
 When I have portion with the blessed dead, 
 The answer why the chalice and the bread 
 Bring hidden strength to them who fight the 
 fight. 
 
 Till then I dare not smirch the mystery 
 By halting words of mine, or still pretend 
 To knowledge that is ignorance indeed. 
 
 The eucharistie feast, the One in Three, 
 
 The Three in One ; would heaven that I might rend 
 The veil that hangs beyond the Christian creed ! 
 
 Tl'RHBULL AND SI'IlARS, PBINTEKS, KDIKDURCH
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L'J-32m-8, '57 (€868084)444
 
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