 | The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite |  |
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XXIX
BEFORE THE LAVABO
It is well to wash with the innocent, but it is a greater thing to go through the cleansing fires which purge the guilty from their sins.
Misfits
'Tis scarcely true that souls come naked downTo take abode up in this earthly town,
Or naked pass—all that they wear denied:
We enter slipshod and with clothes awry,
And we take with us much that by and by
May prove no easy task to put aside.
Cleanse therefore that which round about us clings,
We pray Thee, Master; ere Thy sacred halls
We enter, strip from us redundant things
And meetly clothe us in pontificals!
We pray Thee, Master; ere Thy sacred halls
We enter, strip from us redundant things
And meetly clothe us in pontificals!
The House of God is the House of many Lustrations.
| The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite | |