 | The Poetical Works of Walter C. Smith
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SECULAR
Who once has worn the priestly robe, and seen
The upturned faces with their look of awe,
As unto prophet giving forth the law
Amid the hush which, even when thought is lean,
Devoutly listens,—having ere while been
'Mong holy things within the altar rails,
Is fain to hide his head, what time he fails,
And seeks his pulpit in a magazine,
Unfrocked of his own will. He shrinks with fear
From buzzing critics carping at his wit,
And on the buried past he drops a tear,
Until he finds the secular life is knit
And braced by freedom, and is, haply, more
Large and full than his life before.
| The Poetical Works of Walter C. Smith
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