Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DELIVERED, by A. ANDERS GRAFSTROM


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DELIVERED, by                    
First Line: The night was chilly -- home gunnar sped
Last Line: The deliverer came—it was death!
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; God; Hunger; Poverty; Salvation; Dead, The; Relatives


The night was chilly—home Gunnar sped
With bark from the pine-trees torn:
Fain would he mix it with flour for bread,
But flour there is none in his lowly shed,
In his barn not a grain of corn.

Two pale thin children, with looks of woe,
To welcome their father run:
"Some bread, dear Father, we hunger so.
A crumb or two in thy love bestow."
"God pity you—I have none."

"When Mother was borne on the rude black bier,
And her coffin was downward cast
Into a pit in the churchyard drear,
A loaf you gave us, 'twas wet with a tear,
Say, Father, was that the last?"

"My Children! to-day I can give you nought,
But God will allay your sorrow;
In calm meek trust should His grace be sought,
He will soon send aid of His kind forethought,
Perhaps we will bake to-morrow!"

He snatched his harp from the mossy wall—
What magic is in its strains!
For bread those starved ones no longer call,
And tears from their pale cheeks cease to fall
As the melody soothes their pains.

He turned his face that would else betray
The tokens of anguish deep,
And he played them some music so wildly gay
That the children danced and night wore away,
Till wearied they fell asleep.

Then he prayed by the pallet, whereon the twain.
Lay sleeping with tranquil breath:
"Save them, O Friend of the Poor, from pain!"
God listened, they never awoke again,
The Deliverer came—it was Death!





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