Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LOVE AND FAITH, by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS Poet's Biography First Line: Lo, if a man, magnanimous and tender Last Line: Bear me the blessing, render him the prayer. Alternate Author Name(s): Myers, Frederic Subject(s): Faith; Belief; Creed | ||||||||
Lo if a man, magnanimous and tender, Lo if a woman, desperate and true, Make the irrevocable sweet surrender, Show to each other what the Lord can do, Each, as I know, a helping and a healing, Each to the other strangely a surprise, Heart to the heart its mystery revealing, Soul to the soul in melancholy eyes, Where wilt thou find a riving or a rending Able to sever them in twain again? God hath begun, and God's shall be the ending, Safe in His bosom and aloof from men. Her thou mayest separate but shalt not sunder, Tho' thou distress her for a little while; Rapt in a worship, ravished in a wonder, Stayed on the stedfast promise of a smile, Scarcely she knoweth if his arms have found her Waves of his breath make tremulous the air Or if the thrill within her and around her Be but the distant echo of his prayer. Nay, and much more; for love in his demanding Will not be bound in limits of our breath, Calls her to follow where she sees him standing Fairer and stronger for the plunge of death; Waketh a vision and a voice within her Sweeter than dreams and clearer than complaint, "Is it a man thou lovest, and a sinner? No! but a soul, o woman, and a saint!" Well,if to her such prophecy be given, Strong to illuminate when sight is dim, Then tho' my Lord be holy in the heaven How should the heavens sunder me from Him? She and her love,how dimly has she seen him Dark in a dream and windy in a wraith! I and my Lord,between me and between Him Rises the lucent ladder of my faith. Ay, and thereon, descending and ascending, Suns at my side and starry in the air, Angels, His ministers, their tasks are blending, Bear me the blessing, render Him the prayer. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...UNHOLY SONNET 4 by MARK JARMAN QUIA ABSURDUM by ROBINSON JEFFERS GOING TO THE HORSE FLATS by ROBINSON JEFFERS SONNET TO FORTUNE by LUCY AIKEN JONATHAN EDWARDS IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS by ROBERT LOWELL RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION by MINA LOY ON A GRAVE AT GRINDELWALD by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS |
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