Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BURNING BUSH (DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF SALLIE LYTTLE HATTON), by HENRY HARVEY FUSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BURNING BUSH (DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF SALLIE LYTTLE HATTON), by                    
First Line: The burning bush, a scarlet flame
Last Line: Shall live another day!
Alternate Author Name(s): Fuson, H. H.
Subject(s): God; Moses


The burning bush, a scarlet flame,
Before the trees now stood --
(The trees, gold-brown, in Autumn's name,
Had formed a lovely wood.)

The sun here stood, a ball of blood,
Momently on a dim line,
In a kind of hazy autumn flood,
Drenching with crimson wine.

Beneath the trees the tombs of men
Shone white in the fading light;
And the question came to me just then,
"Where are the dead tonight?"

Where are the dead, that sleep in tombs
Like these, beneath the trees
In an autumn dress, who came from wombs
To rest in such as these?

I stood like one in Dream: looked long
At sun, at wood, and bush,
Burdened with this my heavy Song,
When silence fell with a rush!

And lo! the bush became a flame,
(To my astonished eye) --
And filled this wood with a fan-like flame; --
While from the bush nearby

A Voice rose from the flame to men,
The Voice of God, with a vow --
"Behold! We shall all live again,
Though dying we are now."

My eyes grew dim. I reeled about;
And, in the night that fell
Around me there, I seemed without
Hope -- and why I could not tell.

All blotted out was the very sun!
The tombs of men were lost!
The bush and wood nearby had run
With the tide o' the year they crossed.

But "we shall live again," I hear --
From that still Voice in the night --
And "we shall live again," all fear
Passing with winter's passing night.

"Behold, how the gates of God unfold!"
With the coming of glad spring.
The trees with life will then unfold --
With God there's no new thing.

So shall men live at set of the sun,
Men who have toiled by day --
And, dying with the victory won,
Shall live another day!





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