An Ode to an Ode
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square, –
What words of precious meaning those words Masonic are,”
And they still are ringing, ringing as the Craft today doth know
As they did when Morris sang them more than fifty years ago.
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,”
Did the Bard who caught the meaning and who flung it out so fair,
Did the vision of the REAL that the years so soon should see Give
the Poet the perspective of what IS and is to be ?
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,”
In its true symbolic meaning was unfolded with such care,
That it carried with its rhythm and its setting into song
The true spirit that will ever to the Mystic Art belong.
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square “
With the Plumb in the triangle ‘mong the symbols gleaming there,
All their meanings were embellished for the Craft for coming time
Through the Art and through the Poet of the Art that is sublime.
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square”
Carries with it the momentum that the Bard transcribed so fair,
Carries with it, upright ever by the true, unerring Plumb
All that lies in mortal vision of the Masonry to come.
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square”
In its meaning has been finding hearts responsive everywhere;
It has met a nature longing in the hungry human heart
Undiscovered till ’twas written into real Masonic Art.
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square,”
On the Level as it finds us; on the Square as we repair
To our stations in the Temple, to our stations in the world
Upright in the light of heaven flashing in the gems impearled.
“We meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square”
Is the answer of the ages to its longing and its prayer.
The solution of the problem of the world’s unrest today
Must be solved by this same token for there is no other way.
Let us then be forging, forging stronger still the Mystic chain,
For the glory of the meeting and the work that doth remain.
In the spirit of the Poet let us do our work with care
“As we meet upon the Level, and we part upon the Square.”
– L. B. Mitchell.
Extracted from The Builder Magazine, February 1917 – Volume III – Number 2
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