| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: earth. Courtiers moved about the palace and there were people in
the radiant streets and the houses, for most of them were
occupied, but rarely did the vision show children coming through
their gates.
Of a sudden this scene shifted. Now we saw that same hall in
which we had visited Oro not an hour before. There he sat, yes,
Oro himself, upon the dais beneath the overhanging marble shell.
Round him were some ancient councillors. In the body of the hall
on either side of the dais were men in military array, guards
without doubt though their only weapon was a black rod not unlike
a ruler, if indeed it were a weapon and not a badge of office.
When the World Shook |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: The clean swift brightness of a fugue of Bach's,
And running water singing on the rocks
When once in English woods I heard a lark.
But all remembered beauty is no more
Than a vague prelude to the thought of you --
You are the rarest soul I ever knew,
Lover of beauty, knightliest and best;
My thoughts seek you as waves that seek the shore,
And when I think of you, I am at rest.
Prefatory Note
Beside new poems, this book contains lyrics taken from "Rivers to the Sea",
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