Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WHISPERER by JAMES STEPHENS

First Line: THE MOON WAS ROUND
Last Line: TO WRITE THIS STRAIN!
Subject(s): ANGER; GOD;
The moon was round!
And, as I walked along,
There was no sound,
Save where the wind with long,
Low hushes, whispered to the ground
A snatch of song.

No thought had I
Save that the moon was fair,
And fair the sky,
And God was everywhere:
I chanted, as the wind went by,
A poet's prayer.

Then came a voice
-- Why is it that you praise
And why rejoice,
O stranger to the ways
Of Providence? God has no choice
In this sad maze!

-- His law He laid
Down at the dread beginnings,
When He made
The world and set it spinning;
And His casual hand betrayed
Us into sinning.

-- I fashion you;
And then, for weal or woe,
My business through
I care not how ye go,
Or struggle, win or lose, nor do
I want to know.

-- Is no appeal,
For I am far from sight;
And cannot feel
The rigour of your plight;
And if ye faint just when ye kneel,
That, too, is right!

-- Then do not sing,
O poet in the night!
That everything
Is beautiful and right:
What if a wind come now and fling
At thee its spite!

All in amaze
I listened to the tone
Mocking my praise:
And then I heard the moan
That all tormented nature did upraise:
From tree and stone!

And, as I went,
I heard it once again,
That harsh lament!
And fire came to my brain!
Deep anger unto me was lent
To write this strain!



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