Poem by Francis Thompson

Correlated Greatness

O nothing, in this corporal earth of man,
That to the imminent heaven of his high soul
Responds with colour and with shadow, can
Lack correlated greatness. If the scroll
Where thoughts lie fast in spell of hieroglyph
Be mighty through its mighty habitants;
If God be in His Name; grave potence if
The sounds unbind of hieratic chants;
All's vast that vastness means. Nay, I affirm
Nature is whole in her least things exprest,
Nor know we with what scope God builds the worm.
Our towns are copied fragments from our breast;
  And all man's Babylons strive but to impart
  The grandeurs of his Babylonian heart.

1. Dream-Tryst
2. The Making of Viola
3. Gilded Gold
4. To My Godchild, Francis M.W.M.
5. To a Child Heard Repeating Her Mother's Verses

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