The Dual Image by William Sharpe

The Dual Image, a Mystical Poem of Life
by William Sharpe (1855-1905)


So mused a traveler on the earthly plane
Being in himself a type of all mankind.
For aspirations dim at first possessed
Him only, rising vaguely in his dreams,
Till in ripe years his early musings changed
To inspiration and the light of soul.
Then vision came, and in the light he saw
What he had hoped now openly revealed;
And much besides—the inmost soul of things,
And “beauty” as the crown of life itself,
Ineffable, transcending mortal form;
For robed in light, no longer fantasy,
Before his gaze the true ‘ideal’ stood,
Sublimely fair, beyond conception, clothed
In beauty and divinest symmetry.
Yet pined he not like him of Latmos when
In dreaming ecstasy, upon the hills
Beneath the moon, he saw his love unveiled;
For well he knew the crowning of his life
Was in that vision and would be fulfilled. 
Nay, was fulfilled, for henceforth by his side
A radiant being stood, his guiding light
And polar star, that as a magnet held
Him in the hold of ever-enduring love!
But how to describe this being henceforth his? 
What words can tell what words transcend, but say
That she was fair beyond all human thought?
For who could paint those features and that form
So exquisitely moulded that no art
Could reach them, or convey in any mode
The smile upon those rosy lips or catch
And give the full expression of those eyes,
So wonderful, half veiled beneath the sweep
Of soft and curving lashes, that enhanced
Beyond describing the effect that flowed
From out the liquid depths of those full orbs,
The founts of love so full of smouldering fire
And passion, yet so tender and so chaste?
Her every movement, too, so perfect, seemed
Like nature heightened by unconscious art, 
And all her bearing gentleness itself;
For not that majesty that overawes—
That high, imperious consciousness of worth,
That makes the lowly shrink abashed—was hers,
But in its stead was all the winning grace
And sweetness that immortal Love could add
To beautify its shrine and make thereof
A fitting habitation for itself:
For bending forward with that wondrous look,
So inexpressible, she seemed to say: 
“Thou art mine own, mine equal and my spouse,
My complement, without whom I were nought;
So in mine eyes thou art far more fair than I,
For in thee only is my life fulfilled.”
Then added, in harmonious voice, aloud: 
“Thou long hast thought upon life's mystery,
Its vast, eternally recurring rounds
Of rest and rebirth and activity,
And sought therein the passage of the soul
From light to dark, from dark to light again. 
Come then with me, and we will see in part
The latter in its human phase unveiled.”
So saying, with her presence she endowed
Him with new senses, faculties and powers,
That far surpassed the limits of the old.


First published in 1896