Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EXPERIENCE, by ANNA BUNSTON DE BARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EXPERIENCE, by                    
First Line: No pain can nullify the boon of birth
Last Line: And fretful for the fleshpots left behind.
Subject(s): Experience


NO pain can nullify the boon of birth,
And who would take the sweet, yet grudge the dole,
Have Jacob's dream, yet shun his bed of earth,
Prevail with God, yet keep the sinew whole?
For forty days on Horeb's awful height
Who would not barter Eshcol's vintage rare,
Pomegranates, figs, the long expected land,
Yea all that Nebo showed the straining sight
Of storied woods, deep streams and pastures fair,
From Jordan's banks to Sharon's blinding strand?

Who would not brave the whirlwind and the fire
(Most dreadful prelude!) for the dulcet tones
And single music of a silver lyre
As God Himself His fearful servant owns?
Who would not as a thunderbolt be hurled
To blast a perjured queen and impious king,
To blaze on Carmel terrible and grand,
Arouse a woman-cowed and craven world,
Feed from a raven's or an angel's wing,
Then flash back flaming to the Hurler's Hand.


I would not shirk the hour of deep despair
Beneath the juniper, nor that fierce grief
The patriarch on Mount Moriah bare,
While yet the watching Heaven withheld relief;
But not to suffer basely, would I crave,
Clinging to Sodom spite of angel goad
And hand; or clamouring for quails, to find
Therewith leanness of soul: a murmuring slave,
Desiring Canaan, fearful of the road,
And fretful for the fleshpots left behind.





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