Canto 39The Greater Plan
Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947
Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947
The Infinite Adventure
On the waters of a nameless Infinite
My skiff is launched; I have left the human shore.
5All fades behind me and I see before
The unknown abyss and one pale pointing light.
An unseen Hand controls my rudder. Night
Walls up the sea in a black corridor, —
An inconscient Hunger’s lion plaint and roar
10Or the ocean sleep of a dead Eremite.
I feel the greatness of the Power I seek
Surround me; below me are its giant deeps,
Beyond, the invisible height no soul has trod.
I shall be merged in the Lonely and Unique
15And wake into a sudden blaze of God,
The marvel and rapture of the Apocalypse.
The Greater Plan
I am held no more by life’s alluring cry,
Her joy and grief, her charm, her laughter’s lute.
20Hushed are the magic moments of the flute,
And form and colour and brief ecstasy.
I would hear, in my spirit’s wideness solitary,
The Voice that speaks when mortal lips are mute:
I seek the wonder of things absolute
25Born from the silence of Eternity.
There is a need within the soul of man
The splendours of the surface never sate;
For life and mind and their glory and debate
Are the slow prelude of a vaster theme,
30A sketch confused of a supernal plan,
A preface to the epic of the Supreme.