Canto 92The Fire King and the Messenger
Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947
Incomplete Poems
In the temple she sits of the wide white sun
That burns unsetting in an immortal space beyond Time.
Around her chant the world-poem the deathless Nine
5And the feet of the Fates dance out the rhyme.
Bugles of Light
Bugles of Light, bugles of Light, blare through the mist and the
darkness!
Children of Immortality, we march through the Abyss and the
10Shadow,
Over us hustle the feet of the Fates and the wings of Erinnys,
In front is the screech of the Death horn, behind the red-eyed
monster hunts and howls the tornado.
Our steps search for the road and find the morass and the pitfall.
15Follow the Gleam, follow the Gleam to the city of God and the
pavements of Dream!
Bugles of Light, bugles of Light, shatter the heart of the
Darkness!
The Fire King and the Messenger
20THE FIRE KING
O soul who com’st fire-mantled from the earth
Into the silence of the seven skies,
Art thou an heir of the spiritual birth?
Art thou an ancient guest of Paradise?
25THE MESSENGER
I am the Messenger of the human race,
I am a Pioneer from death and night.
I am the nympholept of Beauty’s face,
I am the hunter of the immortal Light.
30Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947
THE FIRE KING
What flame wearst thou that wraps thee with its power
Protecting from the Guardians of the Way?
What wanderer born from the eternal Hour?
35What fragment of the inconceivable Ray?
THE MESSENGER
It is the fire of an awakened soul
Aspiring from death to reach Eternity,
The wings of sacrifice flaming to their goal,
40The burning godhead of humanity.
THE FIRE KING
What seekst thou here, child of the transient ways?
Wouldst thou be free and still in endless peace?
Or gaze for ever on the Eternal’s face,
45Hushed in an incommunicable release?
THE MESSENGER
I claim for men the peace that shall not fail,
I claim for earth the unwounded timeless bliss,
I seek God-strength for souls that suffer in hell,
50God-light to fill the ignorant abyss.
THE FIRE KING
Ascend no more with thy presumptuous prayer
But safe return to the forsaken globe,
Wake not heaven’s Lightning from its slumber’s lair
55To clothe thee with the anguish of its robe.