Let the critics range as high As the larks or eagles fly, Let them soar as high and far As the realms of sun and star, They will find no distant bound That the Bible has not found, They will gain no lofty nook Whence to patronize this Book. Never critic, lower, higher, Got beyond the truth's empire. Higher critics? -- they that bear Beaks to rend and claws to tear? They whose clumsy pinions fly Weighted for a nether sky? Birds that find their sweetest joy Not to sing, but to destroy? Higher critics but in name, These that fly so low and lame. He is higher critic, he, All whose breath is piety, All whose goals are those alone That the God of goals will own, And his wings of soul and sense Plumed with snowy reverence. All the ways of earth and air Form his open thoroughfare. Wings that God has touched with grace, They may enter any place. When Jehovah guides their flight, They may reach to any height. They may pierce -- none else is fit -- Depths and heights of Holy Writ. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LATEST DECALOGUE by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH ON A FLOWER FROM THE FIELD OF GRUTLI by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE RIVER-GOD'S SONG by FRANCIS BEAUMONT S. BARTHOLOMEW by JOSEPH BEAUMONT MISUNDERSTANDINGS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN KING EDWARD VII by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB |