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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CHANT OF DEPARTURE; A MISSIONARY'S PRAYER by ALFRED BARRETT

First Line: WOMAN WHO WALKED HOME ON THE ARM OF JOHN
Last Line: STAND BY MY SIDE BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS.
Subject(s): MARY. MOTHER OF JESUS; MISSIONARIES & MISSIONS; WOMEN IN THE BIBLE; VIRGIN MARY;

Woman who walked home on the arm of John
Another way from that your Son had gone,
Woman who walked
And talked,
Unwavering, of what must yet be done --
Woman, behold your son!

Behold
Him who in boyhood haunts will not grow old;
Who goes predestined to an alien grave
In clay or sand or wave --
Yet sails enamored of one hope: to see,
As John from his dawn-lit faces on the shore
At Shantung or the coast of Travancore.

Woman who walked home on the arm of John,
When on
Some night of tears I hear the palm trees toss,
Stand by my side beneath the Southern Cross.



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