 | Poems Real and Ideal |  |
330
SONNET. CHRIST'S ETERNAL POETHOOD.
The Church that made the poet into God
Stole his eternal Poethood from him,
And lo! his eyes of genius waxèd dim
And flowerless grew the plains his God's foot trod.
The batlike blind Church limped along the road
He took, and changed to its own image grim
The Eastern poet; swathed his every limb
With stifling robes, and bound the eyes that glowed.
Stole his eternal Poethood from him,
And lo! his eyes of genius waxèd dim
And flowerless grew the plains his God's foot trod.
The batlike blind Church limped along the road
He took, and changed to its own image grim
The Eastern poet; swathed his every limb
With stifling robes, and bound the eyes that glowed.
But now the eyes are gleaming forth again:
The robes are falling, and his limbs are free:
He standeth forth, a soul without a stain,
And through his eyes love's light unchangeably
Smiles on the men who for his sake are slain
To-day by Churches asking “Where is he?”
The robes are falling, and his limbs are free:
He standeth forth, a soul without a stain,
And through his eyes love's light unchangeably
Smiles on the men who for his sake are slain
To-day by Churches asking “Where is he?”
Jan. 13, 1884.
| Poems Real and Ideal | |