The hopples fall from your ankles--you find an unfailing
sufficiency;
Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the rest,
whatever you are promulges itself;
Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are provided, nothing
is scanted;
Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are
picks its way.
Verily a fine and moving poem, in any case, but there are two ways
of taking it, both useful.
One is the monistic way, the mystical way of pure cosmic emotion.
The glories and grandeurs, they are yours absolutely, even in the
midst of your defacements. Whatever may happen to you, whatever you
may appear to be, inwardly you are safe. Look back, LIE back, on
your true principle of being! This is the famous way of quietism, of
indifferentism. Its enemies compare it to a spiritual opium. Yet
pragmatism must respect this way, for it has massive historic
vindication.
But pragmatism sees another way to be respected also, the
pluralistic way of interpreting the poem. The you so glorified, to
which the hymn is sung, may mean your better possibilities
phenomenally taken, or the specific redemptive effects even of your
failures, upon yourself or others. It may mean your loyalty to the
possibilities of others whom you admire and love so, that you are
willing to accept your own poor life, for it is that glory's
partner.
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