Poem by Richard Watson Gilder

The Celestial Passion. Prelude

O white and midnight sky! O starry bath!
⁠     Wash me in thy pure, heavenly, crystal flood;
⁠     Cleanse me, ye stars, from earthly soil and scath;
     ⁠Let not one taint remain in spirit or blood!
Receive my soul, ye burning, awful deeps;
     ⁠Touch and baptize me with the mighty power
⁠     That in ye thrills, while the dark planet sleeps;
     ⁠Make me all yours for one blest, secret hour!
O glittering host! O high angelic choir!
⁠     Silence each tone that with thy music jars;
     ⁠Fill me even as an urn with thy white fire
Till all I am is kindred to the stars!
⁠     Make me thy child, thou infinite, holy night
⁠     So shall my days be steeped in heavenly light! 

1. The New Day. Part 3. 19. Thistle-Down
2. The New Day. Part 4. 17. “He Knows Not the Path of Duty”
3. The New Day. Part 3. 12. Denial
4. The New Day. Part 4. 4. Song (Not from the whole wide world I chose thee)
5. The Celestial Passion. Part 2. 7. On a Portrait of Servetus

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