And this is the meaning of man,
   The task of the soul,
The labour of world, and the plan
   That is set for the whole.
For the spark of the spirit imprisoned within it,
   In all things one and the same,
Aeon by aeon and minute by minute,
   Is longing to leap into flame,
To shatter the limits of life and be lost in a glory intense and profound
As the soul with a cry goes out into music and seeks to be one with the sound.

-- Clifford Bax
(in Poetry of the Spirit, edited by Alan Jacobs)