Upon the roll of folly and of crime Their lives a fact, for intellectual scorn - But more for Christian pity, so forlorn And abject stands it in the stream of Time! The Imperial mandate ran, that, on a day Held sacred to the Lord of limitations, The Christian faith should have its conquering way Barred up, and so the disenchanted nations Go back to Jove and Phoebus and the fanes; Messiah! and the block-God Terminus! O stolid humour! O elaborate pains, All lost and wasted! for it is not thus That truth is stopt; Saints bled, but idols fell, The Church bowed eastward still, and all was well. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...YOUTH AND AGE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE BEFORE ACTION by WILLIAM NOEL HODGSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: CARL HAMBLIN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 130 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE PRODIGAL'S BROTHER SPEAKS by BESS SAMUEL AYRES PORTRAIT IN THE HORIZONTAL by RUTH FITCH BARTLETT THE BAKER'S VAN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN PROLOGUE FOR THE SILVERDALE VILLAGE PLAYERS: EASTER 1924 by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |