Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ANSWER TO SOME ENQUIRIES CONCERNING AUTHOR'S OPINION OF A SERMON, by JOHN BYROM


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ANSWER TO SOME ENQUIRIES CONCERNING AUTHOR'S OPINION OF A SERMON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Say to the sermon?' why, you all were by
Last Line: The bird of learning, not the bird of love.
Subject(s): Sermons


"SAY to the Sermon?" Why, you all were by,
And heard its whole contents as well as I.
Without discussing what the preacher said,
I'll tell you Sirs, what came into my head.

While he went on and learnedly perplex'd
The genuine meaning of his chosen text,
I cast my eyes above him, and explor'd
The dove-like form upon the sounding-board.

That bird, thought I, was put there as a sign
What kind of Spirit guides a good divine,
Such as at first taught preachers to impart
The pure and simple gospel to the heart;

A perfect, plain, intelligible rule,
Without the dark distinctions of "the school,"
That, with a nice, sophistical disguise,
Hide the clear precepts from the people's eyes.

Whatever doctrine in one age was true
Must needs be so in all succeeding too;
Tho' circumstance may change, its inward aim
Thro' ev'ry outward state is still the same.

No thinking Christian can be pleas'd to hear
Men, who pretend to make the scriptures clear,
With low remarks upon the letters play,
And take the spirit of it quite away.

Be time, or place, or person, or what will,
Urg'd in support of such a wretched skill,
It all amounts but to a vain pretence
That robs the Gospel of its real sense,

Taught by the Saviour and by holy men;
'Tis now the very same that it was then;
Not to be alter'd by unhallow'd pains;
The world may vary, but the truth remains.

Its consecrated phrases one would think
That priests and pulpits were not made to sink;
Profaner wits can do it that disgrace,—
What need of HOLY ORDERS in the case?

The modish, critical haranguer heard,
May be admir'd, may be, perhaps, preferr'd,
Who sinks the dictates of the Sacred Page
Down to the maxims of the present age.

But o'er his sounding canopy why bring
The harmless dove to spread its hov'ring wing?
How, in the Church by such a shape, express'd
Fulness of brain and emptiness of breast?

Of heads so fatten'd and of hearts so starv'd
A diff'rent emblem should, methinks, be carv'd,—
The Owl of Athens, and not Sion's Dove,
The bird of learning, not the bird of love.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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