Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GOOD SHEPHERD WITH THE KID, by MATTHEW ARNOLD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GOOD SHEPHERD WITH THE KID, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: He saves the sheep, the goats he doth not save
Last Line: And on his shoulders, not a lamb, a kid.
Subject(s): Goats; God; Religion; Sheep; Theology


He saves the sheep, the goats he doth not save.
So rang, Tertullian's sentence, on the side
Of that unpitying Phrygian Sect which cried:
"Him can no fount of fresh forgiveness lave,

Who sins, once washed by the baptismal wave." --
So spake the fierce Tertullian. But she sighed,
The infant Church! of love she felt the tide
Stream on her from her Lord's yet recent grave.

And then she smiled; and in the Catacombs,
With eyes suffused but heart inspired true,
On those walls subterraneam, where she hid

Her head in ignominy, death, and tombs,
She her good Shepherd's hasty image drew --
And on his shoulders, not a lamb, a kid.




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