Past time and space the shaping Thought
Was born in freedom and in play;
The Image then on earth was wrought
Of water and of clay.
And when the embodied Soul would know
Itself and be to itself revealed,
For its instruction it must go
To the beast that roams the field.
Thenceforth the Soul grew intimate
With beast and herb and stone, and passed
Into the elements to mate
With the dull earth at last.
It’s said that to reverse its doom
And save the entangled Soul, to earth
God came and entered in the womb
And passed through the gate of birth;
Was born a Child in body bound
Among the cattle in a byre.
The clamorous world was all around,
Beast, insect, plant, earth, water, fire.
On bread and wine is flesh grew tall,
The round sun helped him on his way,
Wood, iron, herb and animal
His friends were till the testing day.
Then braced by iron and by wood,
Engrafted on a tree he died,
And little dogs lapped up the blood
That spurted from his broken side.
The great bull gored him with his horns,
And stinging flies were everywhere,
The sun beat on him, clinging thorns
Writhed in and out among his hair.
His body next was locked in stone,
By steel preserved in sterile trust,
And with the earth was left alone,
And, dust, lay with the dust.
There all at last with all was done,
The great knot loosened, flesh unmade
Beyond the kingdom of the sun,
In the invincible shade.
All that had waited for his birth
Were round him then in dusty night,
The creatures of the swarming earth,
The souls and angels in the height.