Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ROAD TO CHURCH, by EFFIE WALLER SMITH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ROAD TO CHURCH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rutted by wheels and scarred by hoofs
Last Line: Which they shall walk no more.
Subject(s): Churches; Religion; Roads; Cathedrals; Theology; Paths; Trails


Rutted by wheels and scarred by hoofs
And by rude footsteps trod,
The old road winds through glimmering woods
Unto the house of God.

How many feet, assembling here
From each diverse abode,
Led by how many different aims,
Have walked this shadowy road!

How many sounds of woe and mirth
Have thrilled these green woods dim --
The funeral's slow and solemn tramp,
The wedding's joyous hymn.

Full oft, amid the gloom and glow
Through which the highway bends,
I watch the meeting streams of life,
Whose mingled current tends

Toward where, beyond the rock-strewn hill,
Against the dusky pines
That rise above the churchyard graves,
The white spire soars and shines.

Here pass bowed men, with blanching locks,
World-weary, faint, and old,
Mourning the ways of reckless youths
Far-wandering from the fold.

There totter women, frail and meek,
Of dim but gentle eyes,
Whom heaven's love has made most kind,
Earth's hardships made most wise.

Apart, two lovers walk together,
With words and glances fond,
So happy now they scarce can feel
The need of bliss beyond.

Gaunt-limbed, his shoulders stooped with toil,
His forehead seamed with care,
Adown the road the farm hand stalks
With awed and awkward air.

The sermon glimmers in his mind,
Its truth half understood,
And yet from prayer and hymn he gains
A shadowy dream of good

That sanctifies the offering
His bare life daily makes --
His tender love for wife and child,
And toil borne for their sakes.

Thus through the bleakness and the bloom,
O'er snows and freshening grass,
Devout, profane, grief-worn or gay,
The thronged church-goers pass,

Till, one by one, they each and all,
Their earthly journeyings o'er,
Move silent down that well-known road
Which they shall walk no more.





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