Eleanor Farjeon

Sonnets. 7. When I see two delay their wings at heaven

When I see two delay their wings at heaven
To scan the creeping audience of the earth,
I think the angelic hosts of life must even
Break into tears of fire or furious mirth,
That ever spirits nearly perfected
Should count the cost of knowing themselves sublime,
Setting the measurable years in dread
Against their single flash of measureless time.

So issues strange to nature are debated,
Woven in nets and beaten into bars,
While nature’s issue stands unconsummated
Upon the very boundary of the stars;
And souls whose unity had been divine
Sundered shrink back from God’s to man’s design.