 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
THE FEAST OF ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ANTIOCH;
OR, THE DEAD PATRIARCHATES.
At Antioch first the Name of Christ
Came down and clothed His Race:
Enthroned at Antioch Peter reared
His earlier resting-place.
O Eastern Church! Imperial Schism
Swept from thy forehead crown and chrism:
Loose from the fold thy Cæsars broke:
Thy penance came—the Moslem yoke!
Came down and clothed His Race:
Enthroned at Antioch Peter reared
His earlier resting-place.
O Eastern Church! Imperial Schism
Swept from thy forehead crown and chrism:
Loose from the fold thy Cæsars broke:
Thy penance came—the Moslem yoke!
O Eastern Church so great of old
What art thou at this hour?
God called thee! why that backward gaze
Servile to mortal Power?
Thou stand'st amid the salt sand-waste
A queenly statue fire-defaced;
A Pillar wrecked of sentenced Pride,
A dead Faith's Image petrified!
What art thou at this hour?
God called thee! why that backward gaze
Servile to mortal Power?
Thou stand'st amid the salt sand-waste
A queenly statue fire-defaced;
A Pillar wrecked of sentenced Pride,
A dead Faith's Image petrified!
408
Eastward, heaven-warned, the Empire ranged;
Byzantium ruled, not Rome:
Westward the Church; the Vatican
Not Salem was her home.
Like ships that each the other pass
Swift-borne through mist o'er seas of glass
Those Spirits of a converse lot
Each other crossed and answered not.
Byzantium ruled, not Rome:
Westward the Church; the Vatican
Not Salem was her home.
Like ships that each the other pass
Swift-borne through mist o'er seas of glass
Those Spirits of a converse lot
Each other crossed and answered not.
Of all those Patriarchal Thrones
Whereon the Apostles sate
But one survives, the bond and seal
Of Christ's Episcopate:
There Peter reigns, and by his side
That great compeer who with him died;
One walked the Gentiles' utmost bound,
One sate, the Church's centre crowned.
Whereon the Apostles sate
But one survives, the bond and seal
Of Christ's Episcopate:
There Peter reigns, and by his side
That great compeer who with him died;
One walked the Gentiles' utmost bound,
One sate, the Church's centre crowned.
The Alexandrian altar fell,
Jerusalem, like thine,
Poor Reliquaries they of Faith
This hour, no more the Shrine:
Chalcedon, Ephesus, and Nice,
The Councils like the Arts of Greece,
Their names are fair in sacred lore;
The spirit of Life is theirs no more.
Jerusalem, like thine,
Poor Reliquaries they of Faith
This hour, no more the Shrine:
Chalcedon, Ephesus, and Nice,
The Councils like the Arts of Greece,
Their names are fair in sacred lore;
The spirit of Life is theirs no more.
Thus in the dust of centuries sleep
The glories once so bright;
Rome, Rome alone whose vigil lasts
Through all the wandering night
Still marks with awe and notes with care
The spots where orbs that are not were:
Her Ephemerides retain
Their names and places—not in vain.
The glories once so bright;
Rome, Rome alone whose vigil lasts
Through all the wandering night
409
The spots where orbs that are not were:
Her Ephemerides retain
Their names and places—not in vain.
The Pilot of the Barque divine
Still sees as on he steers
Sad Antioch's ever-setting star
O'erhang the seas of years;
Sees rather where it shone of old
A radiance posthumous and cold,
A monitory gleam and grand
Impassive as a dead man's hand.
Still sees as on he steers
Sad Antioch's ever-setting star
O'erhang the seas of years;
Sees rather where it shone of old
A radiance posthumous and cold,
A monitory gleam and grand
Impassive as a dead man's hand.
Dread monument! 'Tis thine to lay
That warning Hand and frore
On breasts of panting kings and realms
That kings for Gods adore:
To freeze the Gentile Hope, to bind
The loftier with the lowlier mind,
And with the weight of all the past
Confirmed that greatness shaped to last.
That warning Hand and frore
On breasts of panting kings and realms
That kings for Gods adore:
To freeze the Gentile Hope, to bind
The loftier with the lowlier mind,
And with the weight of all the past
Confirmed that greatness shaped to last.
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |