Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FROM AN ENGLISH SERMON, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FROM AN ENGLISH SERMON, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: More glorious shall the future be
Last Line: To look upon him and rejoice.
Subject(s): Sermons


MORE glorious shall the Future be
Than the dead Past. For those who scan
The chequered page of history,
The time-stained palimpsest of Man.

'Tis as the melancholy hum
Which sometimes on the musing ear
Doth, with vague cries, at nightfall come
From the great city festering near.

No joyous sound, but sad and stern
Echoes of sin and fear and pain,
Of eyes that weep and souls that yearn,
Of lifelong struggles waged in vain.

A dreary record full of Wrong,
Triumphant o'er the power of Right;
Salvation only for the strong,
And brief day swallowed by swift night.

Then the blank silence of the grave,
Poet and sage and ruler gone;
Wisdom and Eloquence past and done,
The monarch rotting by the slave.

Ay, all are vanished, all is still
Where once Life's mingled clamours rose;
Devoid of hope, if free from ill,
They lie together, friends and foes.

Or one faint voice survives to sound
Low requiems when the nations die,
While from the listening ages round
Sobs the thin phantom of a sigh.

We pass, we mark with pitying eye
Story on story sink in gloom,
As one who careless hurries by
The moss-grown legends of the tomb.

More glorious shall the Future be
Than the dead Past. Behold how fair,
Lit by the light of Prophecy,
A gift the Orient ages bear.

The fiend of Ignorance lies dead,
Brute aspect and contracted brow;
Her twin, Idolatry, has fled,
Dark rites, foul spells have vanished now.

No more the Tyrant's numbing chains
And soul-oppressing prisons are;
Nor, with his myriad woes and pains
And thunderous roar, the fiend of War.

Nor Doubt, half-sister of Despair,
Makes Faith grow cold and Godhead dim;
Nor shuddering Poverty is there,
With fleshless face and shivering limb.

But an angelic Sisterhood
Reigns in their stead. With smiles of light,
Fair Knowledge beckons on to good,
And bids us keep and love the Right.

Pure as the moon, strong as the sun,
And lovely as the opening morn,
Faith, from her sepulchre re-born,
Links God and suffering Man in one.

And Liberty, with radiant face,
White-robed, upon the mountain, stands,
And waves benign, with outstretched hands,
A benediction on the Race.

And Peace sits throned, at whose calm feet
Asleep the lamb and lion lie,
Till, to angelic music sweet,
A beam of glory parts the sky.

And, from the illumined depths of Space,
Peals forth a high Celestial Voice --
God calling a regenerate Race
To look upon Him and rejoice.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net