Classic and Contemporary Poetry
RELIGION; AN ESSAY IN COUPLETS, by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON Poet's Biography First Line: What blesses yet is difficult Last Line: This -- goodness: worship -- the result. Alternate Author Name(s): Leigh, Arbor; Guggenberger, Mrs. Ignatz; Bevington, L. S. Subject(s): Religion; Worship; Theology | ||||||||
WHAT blesses yet is difficult, This -- goodness: worship, the result. What man doth worship man doth love, And what he loveth he would prove. And if proof fail he'll place it high, And claim a god's authority. What man can pray for, man can share, His boon foreshadowed in his prayer. Were man of all his needs bereft There would not be a bible left. Were needy man to lose his creed To-morrow one would spring at need. Because men are by life enticed They love their murdered Jesus Christ. Because their god is still their good, Kind Christ was God in flesh and blood. Because they feel the hurt of sin His mother was a maiden clean. Because men long for purity He, born of her security. Because so many women fail Therefore his Magdalen was frail. Because lone women need to love, One Christ was set all change above. Some heart whose will could weakness be Invented his Gethsemane; Some soul in passion's sore distress Temptation in the wilderness. Since notions are not deep as needs, Religion deeper is than creeds. If e'er the Christ be quite forgot, 'Twill be that love is needed not! Or else that love has found a way To every heart of every day. The very truth is set at nought If there be nothing lovely taught; And any solemn lie will do, So it be sweet and solemn too. In all of which 'tis clear to scan, Religion bindeth social man. What blesses, yet is difficult, This -- goodness: worship -- the result. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MYSTIC BOUNCE by TERRANCE HAYES MATHEMATICS CONSIDERED AS A VICE by ANTHONY HECHT UNHOLY SONNET 11 by MARK JARMAN SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE COMING OF THE PLAGUE by WELDON KEES A LITHUANIAN ELEGY by ROBERT KELLY EGOISME A DEUX' by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |
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