Devil Slaying Amongst Other Things: The Secret of the Mere

It's Monday and today I'm featuring a poem once again. Today's poem is by Scottish poet Robert Williams Buchanan. I was originally only going to post an extract as it is on the rather long side and the last thing I want to do is scare you away. But, this poem is very haunting and by cutting it short would do it an injustice.

The Secret of the Mere

I built a hut beside the Mere
A lowly hut of turf and stone
Therein I thought from year to year
To dwell in silence and alone
Watching the lights of heaven chase
The phantoms on the water's face

The world of men was far away
There was no sound, no speech, no cry
All desolate the dark Mere lay
Under the mountains and the sky
A sullen Mere, where sadly brood
Dark shadows of the solitude

" It is an evil world," I said.
" There is no hope, my doom is dark."
And in despair of soul I fled
Where not another eye might mark
My silent pain, my heart's distress
And all my spirit's weariness

And when I came unto the Mere
It lay and gleamed through days of gloom
The livid mountains gathered drear
All round, like stones upon a tomb
Around its margin rusted red
The dark earth crumbled beneath my tread

I said, " It is a godless place
Dark, desolate and cursed, like me
Here, through all seasons, shall my face
Behold its image silently."
And from that hour I lingered there
In protestation and despair

For mark, the hills were stone and sand
Not strewn with scented red or green
All empty as a dead man's hand
And empty lay the Mere between
No flocks fed there, no shepherd's cry
Awoke the echoes of the sky

And through a sullen mist I came
And beast-like crept unto my lair

And many days I crouched in shame
Out of the sunshine and sweet air
I heard the passing wind and rain
Like weary waves within the brain

But when I rose and glimmered forth
Ghost-wise across my threshold cold
The clouds had lifted west and north
And all the peaks were touched with gold
I smiled in scorn, far down beneath
The waters lay as dark as death

I said, " Go by, O golden light!
Thou canst not scatter darkness here.
In two sad bosoms there is night
In mine and in the lonely Mere

Light thou thy lamps and go thy way."
It went, and all the heavens grew grey

And when the lamps of heaven were lit
I did not raise mine eyes to see
But watched the ghostly glimmers flit
On the black waters silently
I hid my face from heaven, and kept
Dark vigil when the bright sun slept

And ever when the daylight grew
I saw with joy the hills were high
From dawn to dark, the live day through
Not lighting as the sun went by
Only at noon one finger-ray
Touched us and then was drawn away

I cried, " God cannot find me now
Done now am I with praise or pain
Beside the Mere, with darkened brow
I walked as desolate as Cain
I cried, " Not even God could rear
One seed of love or blessing here!"

Twas Spring that day, the air was chill
Above the heights white clouds were rolled
The Mere below was blue as steel
And all the air was chill and cold
When suddenly from air and sky
I heard a solitary cry

Ah me! it was the same sweet sound
That I had heard afar away
Sad echoes wakened all around
Out of the rocks and caverns grey
And looking upward, weary-eyed
I saw the gentle bird that cried

Upon a rock sat that sweet bird
As he had sat on pale or tree
And while the hills and waters heard
He named his name to them and me
I thought, " God sends the Spring again
But here at least it comes in vain"

From rock to rock I saw him fly
Silent in flight, but loud at rest
And ever at his summer cry
The mountains gladdened and seemed blessed
And in the hollows of them all
Faint flames of grass began to crawl

Some secret hand I could not see
Was busy where I dwelt alone
It touched with tender tracery
Faint as a breath, the cliffs of stone
Out of the earth it drew soft moss
And lichens shapen like the Cross

I hated every sight and sound
I hated most that happy cry
I saw the mountains glory-crowned
And the bright heavens drifting by
I felt the earth beneath my tread
Now kindling quick, that late was dead

"We will not smile nor utter praise
He made us dark, and dark we brood
Sun-hating, desolate of days
We dwell apart in solitude
Let Him light lamps for all the land
We darken and elude His hand."

Scarce had I spoken in such wise
When as before I heard the bird
And lo, the Mere beneath mine eyes
Was deeply, mystically stirred
A sunbeam broke its gloom apart
And Heaven trembled in its heart

There, clustering in that under-gloom
Like rising stars that open dim
Innumerable, leaf and bloom,
I saw the water-lilies swim
Still beneath the surface dark to sight
But creeping upward to the light

As countless as the lights above
Stirring and glimmering below
They gathered and I watched them move
Till on the surface, white as snow
One came, grew glad, and opened up
A pinch of gold in its white cup

Then suddenly within my breast
Some life of rapture opened too
And I forgot my bitter quest
Watching that glory as it grew
For, leaf by leaf and flower by flower
The lilies opened from that hour

And soon the gloomy Mere was sown
With oiled leaves and stars of white
The trumpet of the wind was blown
Far overhead, from height to height
And lo, the Mere, from day to day
Grew starry as the Milky Way

I could not bear to dwell apart
With so divine and bright a thing
I felt the dark depths of my heart
Were stirring, trembling, wakening
I watched the Mere and saw it shine
E'en as the eye of God on mine

As one that riseth in his tomb
I rose and wept in soul's distress
I had not feared his wrath and gloom
But now I feared his loveliness
I craved for peace from God and then
Crept back and made my peace with men