Classic and Contemporary Poetry
GODMINSTER CHIMES; IN AID CHIME OF BELLS FOR CHRIST CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Godminster? Is it fancy's play Last Line: And hear my son in heaven! Subject(s): Bells; Cambridge, Massachusetts | ||||||||
GODMINSTER? Is it Fancy's play? I know not, but the word Sings in my heart, nor can I say Whether 't was dreamed or heard; Yet fragrant in my mind it clings As blossoms after rain, And builds of half-remembered things This vision in my brain. Through aisles of long-drawn centuries My spirit walks in thought, And to that symbol lifts its eyes Which God's own pity wrought; From Calvary shines the altar's gleam, The Church's East is there, The Ages one great minster seem, That throbs with praise and prayer. And all the way from Calvary down The carven pavement shows Their graves who won the martyr's crown And safe in God repose; The saints of many a warring creed Who now in heaven have learned That all paths to the Father lead Where Self the feet have spurned. And, as the mystic aisles I pace, By aureoled workmen built, Lives ending at the Cross I trace Alike through grace and guilt; One Mary bathes the blessed feet With ointment from her eyes, With spikenard one, and both are sweet, For both are sacrifice. Moravian hymn and Roman chant In one devotion blend, To speak the soul's eternal want Of Him, the inmost friend; One prayer soars cleansed with martyr fire, One choked with sinner's tears, In heaven both meet in one desire, And God one music hears. Whilst thus I dream, the bells clash out Upon the Sabbath air, Each seems a hostile faith to shout, A selfish form of prayer; My dream is shattered, yet who knows But in that heaven so near These discords find harmonious close In God's atoning ear? O chime of sweet Saint Charity, Peal soon that Easter morn When Christ for all shall risen be, And in all hearts new-born! That Pentecost when utterance clear To all men shall be given, When all shall say My Brother here, And hear My Son in heaven! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BOSTON YEAR by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER SONNET - REALITIES: 1 by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS IN THE CHURCHYARD AT CAMBRIDGE by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ST. JOHN'S, CAMBRIDGE; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE BRIDGE by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE HERONS OF ELMWOOD by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THREE FRIENDS OF MINE: 5; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE SPHINX AT MOUNT AUBURN by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES AFTER THE BURIAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |
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