Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHITE MOMENTS, by KATHARINE LEE BATES


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHITE MOMENTS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The best of life, what is it but white moments?
Last Line: -- the starry shrines along our pilgrim road.
Subject(s): Wellesley College


THE best of life, what is it but white moments?
Those swift illuminations when we see
The flying shadows on the fragrant meadows
As God beholds them from eternity.

White moments, when the bliss of being worships,
And fear and shame are heretics that burn
In the holy fire of exquisite desire
For love's surrender and for love's return.

White moments, when a Power above the artist
Catches his plodding chisel, sets it free,
And from each urgent stroke there springs emergent
The wayward grace that laughs at industry.

White moments, when the drowsing soul, sense-muffled,
Is stung awake by some keen arrow-flight,
And rends the bestial, claiming its celestial
Succession in the lineage of light.

White moments, when the spirit, long confronted
By all the bitter formulae of fate,
Inveterate romancer, finds its answer
In some mysterious faith inviolate.

White moments, when the silence steals on sorrow,
And in that hush the heart becomes aware
Of wings that brood it, visions that seclude it
Forevermore from folly, fear, and care.

The best of life, what is it but white moments?
Freedoms that break the chain and fling the load,
Irradiations, ardors, consecrations,
-- The starry shrines along our pilgrim road.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net