Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SINAI, by GORDON BOTTOMLEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SINAI, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I am the moses: I the mouth of god
Last Line: I strike the steel to unavoidable things.
Subject(s): Moses


I AM the Moses: I the mouth of God.
God speaking by me, I must choose His mode.
I understand how water stratifies:
Smiting, I change the balance of its force.
I recognize one element is all things,
So of bland dew blend my primeval food,
By morn and eve fulfil form's power to change.
This is my chisel, stylus of the God --
My hammer this: my hammer is God's mind.
I rule a naughty people and ignorant
By the wise wilful power dictated in me.
They watched me mount the mist with steps like threats;
When the mist took me they were still as blindness,
Uneasy and strained because I might return.
When man conceives his nature, his relation
To water, air, proud beasts, and fruiting trees,
No law can hold him but the law he makes;
His heart's reluctant restless clear perception
Only is simple and hard, is not avoided.
This is my freedom; this I figure as God
To guide a folk who do not free themselves.
A layer of stone can take law's burden, too,
Shew forth my way most definitely and coldly:
Here in height's silence like my loneliness
I strike the steel to unavoidable things.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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