Explore "The Beloved Disciple" by George MacDonald on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I. One do I see and twelve; but second there / Methinks I know thee, thou beloved one; / Not from thy nobler port, for there are none / More quiet-featured: some there are who bear / Their message on their brows, while others wear / A look of large commission, nor will shun / The fiery trial, so their work is done; / But thou hast parted with thine eyes in prayer -- / Unearthly are they both; and so thy lips / Seem like the porches of the spirit land; / For thou hast laid a mighty treasure by / Unlocked by Him in Nature, and thine eye / Burns with a vision and apocalypse / Thy own sweet soul can hardly understand.
II. A Boanerges too! Upon my heart / It lay a heavy hour: features like thine / Should glow with other message than the shine / Of the earth-burrowing levin, and the start / That cleaveth horrid gulfs! Awful and swart / A moment stoodest thou, but less divine -- / Brawny and clad in ruin -- till with mine / Thy heart made answering signals, and apart / Beamed forth thy two rapt eyeballs doubly clear / And twice as strong because thou didst thy duty, / And, though affianced to immortal Beauty, / Hiddest not weakly underneath her veil / The pest of Sin and Death which maketh pale: / Henceforward be thy spirit doubly dear!