What is that image wherein I was made, The image of my God? His mighty form I may not dare to fancy, -- eyes and mouth, All-hearing ears and hands all-powerful; But what is form beside reality? For God is love; and in the shape of love I therefore am created: made to love, And love-inspiring even as my Lord. And God is light; so, in light's image, I: I also a discloser as the light, A cleanser as the sunshine, and, as light, A fashioner of beauties manifold. God is a spirit; spirit, then, am I: No chance commixture of the elements, No foundling outcast at the door of Time, But Lord of matter and the universe, Beginning life when they have passed away. And God -- supreme disclosure of His grace! -- God is our Father; father, then, am I: Formed for creating, guiding, cherishing, Formed for the fashioning of other lives In my own image as my God in His. Nobler is this to be than all the host Of splendid angels and the seraphim That speed with wings of light from star to star, And radiate a glory like the sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...KEEPING UP WITH THE SIGNS by MADELINE DEFREES FOR THE NEW YEAR by EDWIN MARKHAM SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: WILLIAM JONES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS ELEGY: THE GHOST WHOSE LIPS WERE WARM; FOR GEOFFREY GORER by EDITH SITWELL AUF WIEDERSEHEN! SUMMER by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SUMMER BY THE LAKESIDE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BLOOD ON THE WHEEL by ALEXANDER ANDERSON SONGS OF NIGHT TO MORNING: 2. AND YET by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |