 | Sonnets by the Rev. Charles Turner [i.e. Charles Tennyson] |  |
95
THE LUXOR NATIVITY.
A full-blown, modern, speculative sageIs on us, crammed with Egypt—with his dream
Of Nile he seeks the folds of Bethlehem,
And writes ‘from Luxor’ on the sacred page;
The ‘young child’ came from Egypt; yet not so,
As this vain scribe would have it—not the son
Of an old Coptic frieze, but the Holy One
Of Isräel, Virgin-born! O shame and woe!
But, O my Church, thou standest ever sure,
Though meteors through thine open portals glow,
Discolouring with strange lights, that come and go,
Thine altars, and thy fonts, and vestments pure—
Flashing their alien tinct on the true grain
Of thy great dogmas—Evermore in vain.
| Sonnets by the Rev. Charles Turner [i.e. Charles Tennyson] | |