W.B.Yeats - THE INDIAN UPON GOD

Crossways

THE INDIAN UPON GOD

I PASSED along the water's edge below the humid trees,
My spirit rocked in evening light, the rushes round my knees,
My spirit rocked in sleep and sighs; and saw the moorfowl pace
All dripping on a grassy slope, and saw them cease to chase
Each other round in circles, and heard the eldest speak:
i{Who holds the world between His bill and made us strong or weak}
i{Is an undying moorfowl, and He lives beyond the sky.}
i{The rains are from His dripping wing, the moonbeams from His eye.}
I passed a little further on and heard a lotus talk:
i{Who made the world and ruleth it, He hangeth on a stalk,}
i{For I am in His image made, and all this tinkling tide}
i{Is but a sliding drop of rain between His petals wide.}
A little way within the gloom a roebuck raised his eyes
Brimful of starlight, and he said: i{The Stamper of the Skies,}
i{He is a gentle roebuck; for how else, I pray, could He}
i{Conceive a thing so sad and soft, a gentle thing like me?}
I passed a little further on and heard a peacock say:
i{Who made the grass and made the worms and made my feathers gay,}
i{He is a monstrous peacock, and He waveth all the night}
i{His languid tail above us, lit with myriad spots of light.}