A Persian Lesson

For his o’erarching and last lesson the greybeard sufi, In the fresh scent of the morning in the open air, On the slope of a teeming Persian rose-garden, Under an ancient chestnut-tree wide spreading its branches, Spoke to the young priests and students.

“Finally my children, to envelop each word, each part of the rest, Allah is all, all, all⁠—is immanent in every life and object, May-be at many and many-a-more removes⁠—yet Allah, Allah, Allah is there.

“Has the estray wander’d far? Is the reason-why strangely hidden? Would you sound below the restless ocean of the entire world? Would you know the dissatisfaction? the urge and spur of every life; The something never still’d⁠—never entirely gone? the invisible need of every seed?

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