Gerard's Monument And Other Poems. By Emily Pfeiffer: 2nd Ed., Revised and Enlarged |
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 | Gerard's Monument |  |
192
[Oh Love, on thee a burden has been laid]
Oh Love, on thee a burden has been laid,Now in this latter day of doubt and dread!
Be pure, that thou be strong, and unafraid
To meet the hosts wherewith thou are bested.
Thou only champion of the soul blasphemed
By arrogant young science! Show thine eyes
Immortal, and thy pledges unredeemed,—
Then challenge them to shut thee from the skies!
Oh Love, with thee we fall, with thee we rise,
Be pure that thou be strong in death's despite;
Then creeds may wax or wane 'mid tears and sighs,
But never shall the world be lost in night.
Thine is the one evangel, through all forms
Of change surviving, riding out all storms.
195
[Love, show thine eyes, thy stature infinite]
Love, show thine eyes, thy stature infinite;Thou child of dust? Thou slave of breathing clay?
Remorseless mocker then, why blast with light
The dwarfs of time—the failures of a day?
Why lead them to the rifts within the veil
Where life with life communes, and where a kiss
Can open vistas of eternal bliss?
Is it to make the sharpened senses quail
Before that reeling blank, that sheer abyss
Of nothingness that waits us? Vindicate
Thy Godhead, and our trust in thee,—our fate
Is linked with thine, O Love, as bent and pale
Thou stand'st arraigned, and in man's latest plan
Art shown the true arch-enemy of man.
| Gerard's Monument | |