Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL, by AMELIA WOODWARD TRUESDELL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL, by                    
First Line: O ye oaks! Ye guardian genii of the broad leagues up
Last Line: Leave we thee to dreams and shadows; turn we to the world's great heart.
Subject(s): Missions & Missionaries; Saints


O ye oaks! Ye guardian genii of the broad leagues up and down!
Tell us of the scenes ye witnessed or with smile or angry frown.

In your tops we hear a murmur; is it thus brave deeds are sung?
For the alien suppliants deign to speak in coarser human tongue.

Answers not your whispered cadence; is it worship blent with sighs?
Droop ye lower o'er the ruin lifted dark against the skies?

Hold this truth, O fading shrine! 'tis all that's left to light thy day:
'Tis the soul that may illume e'en wasted lines of dying clay.

Awful silence broods around thee, and the noonday hazes thrill
With a pulse which seems a mem'ry of the life that now is still.

Fare-thee-well! Such desolation seems of Time's own death a part;
Leave we thee to dreams and shadows; turn we to the world's great heart.





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