Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE MASTERS OF 1917, by ELIZABETH SEWELL HILL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE MASTERS OF 1917, by                    
First Line: The task is done. The student look
Last Line: By the touch of the master sanctified.
Subject(s): Blood; Death; Pain; War; Dead, The; Suffering; Misery


The task is done. The student look
Bends anxiously to a newer book,
Where the torn and blotted page runs red,
And each stamped line runs stark with dead,
As a world's wounds gape in agony
And the spent current drips out slenderly.
And the new task waits where fire-lit lands
Wait sore the touch of master hands;
Wait sore the spirit of Galilee,
The Master's touch and sympathy.

The new task, masters. Yours to be
Of the world-work; chrism of agony
Or the spirit's touch and sympathy,
Till dreams lift fair over dumb, charred lands—
Fabric that speaks of master hands—
Till the page glows white where the page runs red,
With the stars' requiem for the line's stark dead,
And the blue bends hushed, brave and comforted.

This the task, O masters new-panoplied,
By the touch of the Master sanctified.





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