I have been young, and now am not too old; And I have seen the righteous forsaken, His health, his honour and his quality taken. This is not what we were formerly told. I have seen a green country, useful to the race, Knocked silly with guns and mines, its villages vanished, Even the last rat and the last kestrel banished -- God bless us all, this was peculiar grace. I knew Seraphina; Nature gave her hue, Glance, sympathy, note, like one from Eden. I saw her smile warp, heard her lyric deaden; She turned to harlotry; -- this I took to be new. Say what you will, our God sees how they run. These disillusions are His curious proving That He loves humanity and will go on loving; Over there are faith, life, virtue in the sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GEORGE WASHINGTON by JOHN HALL INGHAM AFTERNOON ON A HILL by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY A FRESHET by ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM THE LINNET by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES THE BUSH-SPARROW by JOHN BURROUGHS FOUR EPISTLES: MIRACLE AT THE FEAST OF PENTECOST: 1 by JOHN BYROM |