The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker Edited from the original manuscripts and annotated copies together with a prefatory notice and bibliography by Alfred Wallis |
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THE TWAIN.
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 | The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker |  |
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THE TWAIN.
Which only hath Immortality.
Two sunny children wandered, hand in hand,By the blue waves of far Gennesaret,
For there their Syrian father drew the net,
With multitudes of fishes, to the land.
One was the twin, even he whose blessèd name
Hath in ten thousand shrines this day a fame—
Thomas the Apostle, one of the ethereal band.
But he, his Hebrew brother, who can trace
His name, the city where he dwelt, his place,
Or grave? We know not, none may understand.
There were two brethren in the field: the one
Shall have no memory underneath the sun;
The other shines, beacon of many a strand,
A star upon the brow of night, here in the rocky land.
“I inserted in my sermon an account of the discovery of St. Thomas the Apostle's death and burial in India. Thus the sole question ever was, Is it apostolic? Then it must endure. Was it from one of the Twelve? Then it will never pass away. A small company of Christian men found in Upper India among the mountains, origin unknown; afterwards a tomb, with a staff and cross, a legend that there lived, laboured, and was slain, St. Thomas the Apostle. St. Thomas the Twain, even in his ashes, survived the apostolic fire, and whole ages after he was dust virtue went out of the dust of St. Thomas of India.”—Letter from Mr. Hawker, dated June 15, 1856.
| The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker | |