Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE BABE, by EDWARD CARPENTER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE BABE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The trio perfect: the man, the woman, and the babe
Last Line: And herein all creation.
Subject(s): Babies; Creation; Family Life; Love; Infants; Relatives


THE trio perfect: the man, the woman, and the babe,
And herein all Creation.

The two, with wonder in their eyes, from opposite worlds
Of sex, of ancestry, pursuits, traditions,
Each other suddenly, amazed, confronting—
A nameless glory each in each surmising.

A frenzy as of Gods—
Imperial rage, flinging the goods of the world aside as dross, to reach to
a priceless treasure:
[He madly invasive,
She deeply wise, and drawing farther back
Even to the gates of Paradise as he approacnes:]
Strange ecstasy of warfare!
Seisin and ravishment of souls and bodies.
Veils rent asunder,
Heaven opening measureless, overhead, in splendor,
And all life changed, transfigured!

And then a calm.
Weeks of humdrum and mortal commonplace,
And months perchance in monotone of toil,
But still behind it all some deep remembrance,
Some sure reliance,
And sweet and secret knowledge in each other.

And then the Babe:
A tiny perfect sea-shell on the shore
By the waves gently laid (the awful waves!)—
By trembling hands received—a folded message—
A babe yet slumbering, with a ripple on its face
Remindful of the ocean.

And two twined forms that overbend it, smiling,
And wonder to what land Love must have journeyed,
Who brought this back—this word of sweetest meaning
Two lives made one, and visible as one.
And herein all Creation.





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