 | Laurella and other poems |  |
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THERE SHALL COME FALSE CHRISTS.
I dreamed of a phantom Christ
That fleeted athwart the sky,
Fleeted and flicker'd across, and enticed
After it, smiling, a smiling throng,
Whose hymns were loud as they hurried along,
Crowned with flowers and proudly elate,
Jauntily blowing the trump of fate
In the ears of the sorrow-stricken,
Leaving the fainting world to sicken
In the smoke of hell, and to die.
That fleeted athwart the sky,
Fleeted and flicker'd across, and enticed
After it, smiling, a smiling throng,
Whose hymns were loud as they hurried along,
Crowned with flowers and proudly elate,
Jauntily blowing the trump of fate
In the ears of the sorrow-stricken,
Leaving the fainting world to sicken
In the smoke of hell, and to die.
I dreamed of a spectre Christ
That wandered o'er all the earth;
On its altars were sacrificed
Sacred pledges and solemn vows;
Sin built temples, with shameless brows,
Virtue-whitewashed renewed her youth,
Lying her lies in the cause of truth,
Handing tracts to the sinners around—
All that grace might the more abound.
She had experienced a true new-birth.
That wandered o'er all the earth;
On its altars were sacrificed
Sacred pledges and solemn vows;
Sin built temples, with shameless brows,
Virtue-whitewashed renewed her youth,
Lying her lies in the cause of truth,
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All that grace might the more abound.
She had experienced a true new-birth.
I dreamed of a demon Christ
That glared upon land and sea,
Throned like Juggernaut, coldly iced
In the frozen armour of creed;
Nerves must quiver and hearts must bleed
For its worship where'er it came,—
Fair limbs writhe in the scorching flame,
Torments, famine, and plague, and wars,
Made men made under sun and stars,
To prove its dreadful divinity.
That glared upon land and sea,
Throned like Juggernaut, coldly iced
In the frozen armour of creed;
Nerves must quiver and hearts must bleed
For its worship where'er it came,—
Fair limbs writhe in the scorching flame,
Torments, famine, and plague, and wars,
Made men made under sun and stars,
To prove its dreadful divinity.
I dreamed of a suffering Christ,
A sorrowful Son of Man,
Clad like a beggar—a stone sufficed
For his pillow, his home the street,
Rest was none for his lonely feet,
Faint he was, and none brought him wine:
But who gazed in those eyes divine
Straight grew wise in life-mysteries,
Wise in all human sympathies,
Read in the world its inner plan.
A sorrowful Son of Man,
Clad like a beggar—a stone sufficed
For his pillow, his home the street,
Rest was none for his lonely feet,
Faint he was, and none brought him wine:
But who gazed in those eyes divine
Straight grew wise in life-mysteries,
Wise in all human sympathies,
Read in the world its inner plan.
I dreamed of an awful Christ,
The terrible Son of God:
Him, the blood of whose eucharist
Works, like leaven, in wine and bread,
Life in the living, death in the dead.
Where the gleam of his sun-crown fell,
Earth, self-judged, became heaven or hell;
Plunged in God, like a lake of fire,
Each drank deep of his heart's desire,
Love or hate—waxed or waned in God.
The terrible Son of God:
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Works, like leaven, in wine and bread,
Life in the living, death in the dead.
Where the gleam of his sun-crown fell,
Earth, self-judged, became heaven or hell;
Plunged in God, like a lake of fire,
Each drank deep of his heart's desire,
Love or hate—waxed or waned in God.
When things that be are as things that seem,
Then all the world will have dreamed this dream.
Then all the world will have dreamed this dream.
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