THE KASÎDAH IX, 117, 128

Survey thy kind as One whose wants
 in the great Human Whole unite;
The Homo rising high from earth
 to seek the Heav’ens of Life-in-Light;

And hold Humanity one man,
 whose universal agony
Still strains and strives to gain the goal,
 where agonies shall cease to be.

Believe in all things; none believe;
 judge not nor warp by “Facts” the thought;
See clear, hear clear, tho’ life may seem
 Mâyâ and Mirage, Dream and Naught.

THE KASÎDAH IX, 105, 116

Pluck the old woman from thy breast:
 Be stout in woe, be stark in weal;
Do good for Good is good to do:
 Spurn bribe of Heav’en and threat of Hell.

To seek the True, to glad the heart,
 such is of life the HIGHER LAW,
Whose differ’ence is the Man’s degree,
 the Man of gold, the Man of straw.

See not that something in Mankind
 that rouses hate or scorn or strife,
Better the worm of Izrâil
 than Death that walks in form of life.

THE KASÎDAH IX, 61, 72

The finite Atom infinite
 that forms thy circle’s centre-dot,
So full-sufficient for itself,
 for other selves existing not,

Finds the world mighty as ’tis small;
 yet must be fought the unequal fray;
A myriad giants here; and there
 a pinch of dust, a clod of clay.

Yes! maugre all thy dreams of peace
 still must the fight unfair be fought;
Where thou mayst learn the noblest lore,
 to know that all we know is nought.

THE KASÎDAH IX, 37, 48

Finds mirth and joy in Jamshid-bowl;
 toys with the Daughter of the vine;
And bids the beauteous cup-boy say,
 “Master I bring thee ruby wine!”

Sips from the maiden’s lips the dew;
 brushes the bloom from virgin brow:—
Such is his fleshly bliss that strives
 the Maker through the Made to know.

I’ve tried them all, I find them all
 so same and tame, so drear, so dry;
My gorge ariseth at the thought;
 I commune with myself and cry:—

THE KASÎDAH IX, 25, 36

He breaks the Law, he burns the Book,
 he sends the Moolah back to school;
Laughs at the beards of Saintly men;
 and dubs the Prophet dolt and fool,

Embraces Cypress’ taper-waist;
 cools feet on wavy breast of rill;
Smiles in the Nargis’ love-lorn eyes,
 and ’joys the dance of Daffodil;

Melts in the saffron light of Dawn
 to hear the moaning of the Dove;
Delights in Sundown’s purpling hues
 when Bulbul woos the Rose’s love.

THE KASÎDAH IX, 13, 24

One way, two paths, one end the grave.
 This runs athwart the flow’ery plain,
That breasts the bush, the steep, the crag,
 in sun and wind and snow and rain:

Who treads the first must look adown,
 must deem his life an all in all;
Must see no heights where man may rise,
 must sight no depths where man may fall.

Allah in Adam form must view;
 adore the Maker in the made.
Content to bask in Mâyâ’s smile,
 in joys of pain, in lights of shade.

THE KASÎDAH IX, 1, 12

How then shall man so order life
 that when his tale of years is told,
Like sated guest he wend his way;
 how shall his even tenour hold?

Despite the Writ that stores the skull;
 despite the Table and the Pen;
Maugre the Fate that plays us down,
 her board the world, her pieces men?

How when the light and glow of life
 wax dim in thickly gath’ering gloom,
Shall mortal scoff at sting of Death,
 shall scorn the victory of the Tomb?

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 141, 152

Enough to think such things may be:
 to say they are not or they are
Were folly: leave them all to Fate,
 nor wage on shadows useless war.

Do what thy manhood bids thee do,
 from none but self expect applause;
He noblest lives and noblest dies
 who makes and keeps his self-made laws.

All other Life is living Death,
 a world where none but Phantoms dwell,
A breath, a wind, a sound, a voice,
 a tinkling of the camel-bell.

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 129, 140

“For gen’erous youth,” an Arab saith,
 “Jahim’s the only genial state;
“Give us the fire but not the shame
 with the sad, sorry blest to mate.”

And if your Heav’en and Hell be true,
 and Fate that forced me to be born
Force me to Heav’en or Hell—I go,
 and hold Fate’s insolence in scorn.

I want not this, I want not that,
 already sick of Me and Thee;
And if we’re both transform’d and changed,
 what then becomes of Thee and Me?

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 117, 128

“You all are right, you all are wrong,”
 we hear the careless Soofi say,
“For each believes his glimm’ering lamp
 to be the gorgeous light of day.”

“Thy faith why false, my faith why true?
 ’tis all the work of Thine and Mine,
“The fond and foolish love of self
 that makes the Mine excel the Thine.”

Cease then to mumble rotten bones;
 and strive to clothe with flesh and blood
The skel’eton; and to shape a Form
 that all shall hail as fair and good.

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 105, 116

Retorts the Tartar: “Shall I lend
 mine only ready-money ‘now,’
“For vain usurious ‘Then’ like thine,
 avaunt, a triple idiot Thou!”

“With this poor life, with this mean world
 I fain complete what in me lies;
“I strive to perfect this my me;
 my sole ambition’s to be wise.”

When doctors differ who decides
 amid the milliard-headed throng?
Who save the madman dares to cry:
 “’Tis I am right, you all are wrong?”

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 93, 104

What to the Moslem cries the Frank?
 “A polygamic Theist thou!
“From an imposter-Prophet turn;
 Thy stubborn head to Jesus bow.”

Rejoins the Moslem: “Allah’s one
 tho’ with four Moslemahs I wive,
“One-wife-men ye and (damnèd race!)
 you split your God to Three and Five.”

The Buddhist to Confucians thus:
 “Like dogs ye live, like dogs ye die;
“Content ye rest with wretched earth;
 God, Judgment, Hell ye fain defy.”

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 81, 92

“Go strain the draught before ’tis drunk,
 and learn that breathing every breath,
“With every step, with every gest,
 something of life thou do’est to death.”

Replies the Hindu: “Wend thy way
 for foul and foolish Mlenchhas fit;
“Your Pariah-par’adise woo and win;
 at such dog-Heav’en I laugh and spit.”

“Cannibals of the Holy Cow!
 who make your rav’ening maws the grave
“Of Things with self-same right to live;—
 what Fiend the filthy license gave?”

THE KASÎDAH V, 25, 36

Delusion, Ign’orance! Long ere Man
 drew upon Earth his earliest breath
The world was one contin’uous scene
 of anguish, torture, prey and Death;

Where hideous Theria of the wild
 rended their fellows limb by limb;
Where horrid Saurians of the sea
 in waves of blood were wont to swim:

The “fair young Earth” was only fit
 to spawn her frightful monster-brood;
Now fiery hot, now icy frore,
 now reeking wet with steamy flood.