Canto 97In the silence of the midnight
Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947
Incomplete Poems
I am filled with the crash of war
I am filled with the crash of war and the shout of Cain,
Victories and marchings and agonised retreats,
5I feel the bombs burst and the cries of pain
In Barcelona and in Canton streets.
In the silence of the midnight
In the silence of the midnight, in the light of dawn or noontide
I have heard the flutings of the Infinite, I have seen the sun-wings of
10the seraphs.
On the boundless solitude of the mountains, on the shoreless roll of
ocean,
Something is felt of God’s vastness, fleeting touches of the Absolute
Momentary and immeasurable smite the sense nature free from its
15limits, —
A brief glimpse, a hint, it passes, but the soul grows deeper, wider:
God has set his mark upon the creature.
In the flash or flutter of flight of bird and insect, in the passion of
wing and cry on treetops,
20In the golden feathers of the eagle, in the maned and tawny glory of
the lion,
In the voiceless hierophants of Nature with their hieratic script of
colour,
Orchid, tulip and narcissus, rose and nenuphar and lotus,
25Something of eternal beauty seizes on the soul and nerves and
heartstrings.