Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROVIDENCE, by MATTHIAS JOCHUMSSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROVIDENCE, by                    
First Line: What is that light, which points the way
Last Line: That hand is god.
Subject(s): God


WHAT is that light, which points the way for me --
The way where mortal eyes no light can see?
What is that light, on which all light depends
And with creative power through space descends?
What writes of "love" on youth's illumined page
And "life eternal" on the brow of age?
What is thy light, thou fond and cherished Hope,
Without which all the world would darkly grope?
That light is God.

What is that voice I hear within, through life,
That echoes through our ranks of common strife? --
A father's voice, in wisdom to appraise,
A mother's voice, to comfort all the race.
What voice alone attuned perfection sings,
When all our world of song discordant rings?
Turns into day the darkness of the throng,
And agonies of death to hopeful song?
That voice is God.

What mighty hand maintained protecting hold
Upon this reed, through direst winter cold?
And found my life, a dormant wind-tossed seed,
And planted it, supplying every need? --
The hand whose torch must touch the sun with light,
Whose shadow means calamity and night.
The hand whose law has written its control
Upon each lily and eternal soul?
That hand is God.





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