Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE SANCTISSIMUM: 2. CRUX MUNDI, by CHARLES WILLIAMS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE SANCTISSIMUM: 2. CRUX MUNDI, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not thee, ourselves on thee for cross, o lord
Last Line: But o what blossoming beauty in the dry!
Subject(s): Crucifixion; Jesus Christ; Religion; Jesus Christ - Crucifixion; Theology


NOT thee, ourselves on thee for cross, O Lord,
Herein we see; feeling the whole world hang
Distraught, and knowing not whence comes the pang,
Nor how its hands and feet are bound with cord
Of hate and nailed with longing to the abhorred
Tree of its grief, nor that the word which rang
(In its cheated ear) of pleasure only sprang
From its own pain's delirium: now, O stored
With sap of a new spring, grow with us one!
That, then thy perfect crucifixion,
Teach us; which known, the healing virtue works:
Dying, we have no strength except we die.
In dreams of a green tree what madness lurks,
But O what blossoming beauty in the dry!





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