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Poems

By William Walsham How ... New and Enlarged Edition

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 I. 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
VIII.—The Two Worlds.
 IX. 
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 XI. 
 XII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  


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VIII.—The Two Worlds.

[_]

Text: Rom. i. 20.

Ah, why the trammels of this graceless flesh,
Cramping the spirit in her heavenly flight,
Caging her freedom in the tangled mesh
Of hollow form and soul-encumbering rite?’
Nay, peace, poor soul! Nor cherish idle dreams:
Shared not the Son of God a human birth,
Crowning this dim life with His heavenly beams,
And hallowing all the common things of earth?
And lo! Eternal Wisdom, Love profound,
Dowering with choicest boons the ransomed race,
In sacramental blessedness hath bound
Together outward sign and inward grace.
For in vast counterpart God only-wise
Outer and inner things alike hath planned,
That Man, through earthly type, with undazed eyes
The deeper things of God might understand.