THEY took him to the hoary church, And waited near the font awhile, With something new of sacredness In handclasp, whisper, look and smile. The glorious mantle of a saint, Set in a stained-glass window, poured A beam of scarlet light across The child they offered to the Lord. The mother, never quite content With any folding of his gown, So smoothed him that his limpid eyes No longer kept the eyelids down. Then she who mothered him in God Shaped an ungiven kiss; and now The trusted Vicar came to sign The Cross of Christ upon his brow. But he, unwitting how his frock Was puckered, or his sash awry, Gazed at a Shepherd with a lamb Beneath a glassy spread of sky; And then, before the reverent priest Had marked him soldier, kinsman, heir, He lifted up his weakling arms Toward the Saviour imaged there. 'Twas felt by all who saw him thus Enrol himself, at unawares, That Heaven accepted him without The drops of water and the prayers; But when between his little brows The sign of Calvary was pressed, They knew that Christ had found a place For Christopher upon His breast. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPITAPH: FOR MY GRANDMOTHER by COUNTEE CULLEN IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 27 by ALFRED TENNYSON LINES SUGGESTED BY A LATE OCCURRENCE by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD WHEN SHE CAM BEN, SHE BOBBED by ROBERT BURNS THE AUTHOR'S COAT OF ARMS by JOHN BYROM THE COMPLAINT OF NINATHOMA, FROM THE SAME by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |