Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE LAST WORSHIPPER by JOHN COWPER POWYS

First Line: BROKEN AND SHATTERED
Last Line: THE DYING GODS CANNOT WHOLLY DIE.
Subject(s): CANDLES; DEATH; HEAVEN; PRAYER; WORSHIP; DEAD, THE; PARADISE;

Broken and shattered
Lie on the stones
The golden censers
That once scattered
Perfume and prayer;
And unbeholden,
Save of us only,
The high gods lonely
Mount their sad thrones.

And I too, beneath my breath,
Blaspheme and profane the place
With mutterings lewd of death --
But your illumined face,
Strained by the weeping of sacrifice,
And lit by the candles of paradise,
Gleams like a silver cup
To those sad ones offered up;
And as long you yield them that visible cry
The dying gods cannot wholly die.



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