Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CROWN OF THORNS, by JESSE WILLIS JEFFERIS First Line: What recompense is theirs who, scorning gain and glory Last Line: A wreath ineffable above his cross behold! Subject(s): Art & Artists; Composers; Crowns; Dante Alighieri (1265-1321); Egypt; Galileo (1564-1642); Jesus Christ; Love; Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564); Poetry & Poets; Socrates (470-399 B.c.); Sphinx; Thorns; Galileo Galilei | ||||||||
What recompense is theirs who, scorning gain and glory, Engrave the finer features of a nobler race; The record of whose dreams, a love-illumined story, Upon the scrolls of Time eyes dimmed with tears shall trace? To know their rich reward, read lives of martyrs lowly, Who dying hear the harsh anathemas of men; Ask sculptor, painter, poet, mid their travail holy, Heroic souls that wield the chisel, brush and pen, A heedless world ignores their right to well-earned treasure, -- Their meed of food and raiment, houses, lands and gold; The guerdon earth bestows, oft in unstinted measure, Is man's ingratitude as they grow poor and old. Do they in death behold belated garlands gleaming, Discarnate haste to seek some soul-inviting shore, Whose never-setting sun is Love's pure radiance beaming Benignly on the promised mansions evermore? Roam through the winter's woods and ask old Boreas bitter If frost-killed leaves return to broken branches bare; Learn why the gaunt she-wolf among her hungry litter With their slain sire shall ne'er his bleeding booty share. Muse with the stricken maiden, whose dead lover lieth In foreign trenches by hell's ruthless havoc torn; Beseech the grief-bowed mother as she daily crieth Why o'er an empty cradle she should vainly mourn. And when no light, no hope, or answer thou canst muster From Nature's mighty heart or from the mind of man; When silent sits the Sphinx, stone-deaf to earthly bluster, Assured no human brain can grasp the Builder's plan: Ask Him who heard the stones on Stephen's body raining, Who let the bigots compass Galileo's woe; Who saw a Socrates the bitter death-cup draining, Who hindered not the hand that laid a Lincoln low. Ask why the loftiest spirits oft lose all in serving, Rejected by the thankless age which owes them most; Condemned, imprisoned, tortured, yet with wills unswerving, Before our vision looms the valiant martyred host! From flaming fagots see their spectral forms arising: Savonarola, Bruno, Latimer who gave Their lives for Truth; self-seeking, sordid aims despising, Who saving others had no thought themselves to save. Composers, artists, authors through our fancy wending, The passing centuries a throng immortal yield: A banished Dante man's ingratitude transcending, A Mozart's spirit fleeing from a potter's field; A Michelangelo with art celestial carving, Millet arisen from a night of tragic years -- What radiant beauty flowers from souls of artists starving; What heaven-wrought pearls the Maker wring from human tears! . . . Flinch not, soul-builders, Truth at last the way revealeth With rays supernal, such as blinded doubting Saul: The mystic Book of Life no mortal man unsealeth Unless denying self for Truth he giveth all. Christ had His grim reward Who, scorning gain and glory, Engraved the finer features of a nobler race; He had His crown of thorns, whose love-illumined story Upon the scrolls of Time eyes dimmed with tears shall trace. No well-earned meed of worldy wealth had He to measure, -- No costly raiment, houses, lands or jingling gold; Yet myriads His gentle life and teachings treasure; A wreath ineffable above His cross behold! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLIND ASTRONOMER by THOMAS ASA LINES WRITTEN IN SWITZERLAND by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES GALILEO BEFORE THE INQUISITION by MARGARET JUNKIN I REMEMBER GALILEO by GERALD STERN AGE OF DISCOVERY by DEAN YOUNG WATCHERS OF THE SKY: 4. GALILEO by ALFRED NOYES A SENSE OF DIRECTION by KAREN SWENSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: CARL HAMBLIN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE LARK ASCENDING by GEORGE MEREDITH ON THE UNIVERSITY CARRIER by JOHN MILTON |
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