Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GRANDFATHER, by JOHN JAY CHAPMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GRANDFATHER, by                 Poet Analysis    
First Line: There's a kind of morning prayer
Last Line: Filled the room.
Subject(s): Grandparents; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


There's a kind of morning prayer
In the air
That recalls the song and praise
Of other days,
And the lilacs all in bloom,
And the sunny breakfast-room --
Open windows to the ground
All around;
Lawns a-glitter with the dew,
Scents from many a field and flower
In that early, quiet hour
Greeted you.
For, in coming down the stairs
You could smell delicious airs --
The whole country-place seemed theirs;
Were they creeping in to prayers,
Or passing through,
Or visiting the vases freshly set
On the mantel, in the corner cabinet?
Was it lilies, was it pinks or mignonette?
What they were I'll hardly say --
Roses, roses anyway!
I smell them yet.
Just a morn like this, and then
Came the maids (there were no men)
One or two
Decent maids; then jolly children not a few.
And with shuffling of the chairs
They prepared the place for prayers,
Romping through;
And scarcely grew more tame
When the silent moment came.
For they knew
When Grandpapa appeared
He was little to be feared
By the crew.
And their mothers were in bed.
(For surely for such notions
As family devotions
There's little to be said.)

So the ancient prayers were read
By that brilliant-eyed old man,
Full of reverence, full of grace,
To the children of his clan
In the quaint old country-place
That had nursed the elder race
With its bloom.
And he kneeled where they had kneeled,
And the odors of the field
Filled the room.





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