The Coat Without a Seam and Other Poems
9781465681683
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
There was a web, ere Time began, Woven on the loom of God, Woven for the need of Man. Through the web two colors ran, Blue that is the sky of God, Red that is the blood of Man. The web was woven, the web was one: The stars sang when the work was done. God had willed it to be worn— Fit garment for the heavenly feast—By Man, that was to be His son. Only God could dream that dream! When Time began, and Man was born, He clothed himself in the skin of the beast, And under it beat the heart of the beast. Not till Man be born God’s son Shall he wear the Coat without a Seam! (Ah, the dream, the wondrous dream Of a World without a Seam, Man being one, as God is one, Brother’s brother and Father’s son, All earth, all Heaven, without a seam!) The Roman strode through field and flood, Blind as Fate with battle-blood; Victory glittered in his hand; And when he laid him down at night Under the stars of some strange land, Weary of the march or fight, He wrapped his heart in the vast dream Of a World without a Seam; Yet the dream was not divine; The fierce heart beat like marching feet: “The World is one—the World is mine!” That was the dream of states foregone, Of Babylon, of Macedon; Sleeked by whatsoever art, It is the dream of the beast’s heart.
