Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LIGHT-BORN SORROWS, by CONSTANCE CAROLINE WOODHILL NADEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LIGHT-BORN SORROWS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hath wisdom made thee weep? Be yet more wise
Last Line: "my soul shall glory in perfected life."
Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness


HATH Wisdom made thee weep? Be yet more wise,
And sing for joy. The blind man, gaining sight,
Says haply, "Would I ne'er had seen the light!
This world is all so strange, my 'wildered eyes
Know nought of fair or foul: ah, dear content,
Ere any spectre came to me at night,
When, watched and soothed by unimagined skies,
My dreams were nought but music and sweet scent.
Now must I link to faithful touch and tone
A wondrous alien form, unloved, unknown,
And try to read the face that may be sweet
When I have learnt its language -- not till then.
E'en if I shut my eyes, am blind again,
And strive, undoubting, that dear voice to greet,
To trust the hand, that still must guide my feet,
The phantom that I know not comes between;
I must look up -- I, who was blind from birth,
And conning wistfully her face and mien,
Interpret mystic features by clear voice,
Loving the song, must love the plumage too,
And make the rose's scent explain its hue:
Thus, keeping faith in beauty, I rejoice,
(Or hope for joy) in green fields, heavens blue,
In all my new-found plenty, felt as dearth,
In all enigmas of this visible earth."

Ah, think ye not, if that poor man be wise,
He will exult because his night is past,
Saying "Although it come to baffled eyes,
Yet light is good, and shall be sweet at last:
From this new face, that even now grows dear,
I shall but learn more richly cadenced love,
And all this foreign world, around, above,
Shall float like music to my inward ear;
Amid all discords, through all thunder-strife,
My soul shall glory in perfected life."








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