Grave Matthew walked with Jesus on the hill, A place of wide horizons calm and kind, Whence looking backward over history, The march of prophecy with true event, The providential currents of the world, How through the intricate of human woes God's love runs ever like a golden thread, He clearly saw, and then as clearly wrote. Mark walked with Jesus in the market-place, Impetuous and eager, jostled here By clamoring traders, there by Roman shield, And yonder by a camel's pushing nose. And as he walked he saw the Master lay His healing hand on sick folk; heard his words Of tender wisdom; caught his burning love, And wrote it all in a brief, burning book. Luke walked with Jesus by the shining sea, And saw the comrade shining of his face, And heard the liquid laving of his tones; Knew that glad health flowed from him like a tide; Knew that his life, one with the life of God, Would spread, a living ocean, o'er the world; And fluent, orderly, he wrote it all In sentences as limpid as the lake. John sat with Jesus in a twilight room, The two alone and all the world shut out; And there the friends, through midnight and to morn, Communed of love divine, of heaven and God, Of life immortal in the love of God, And sacrifice triumphant over sin; Whence risen, all his ardent soul aflame, He wrote the crowning book of Holy Writ. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE: 11. IN THE RESTAURANT by THOMAS HARDY THE JACQUERIE: SONG. THE HOUND by SIDNEY LANIER LATAKIA by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 8. OF CONSTANCY by WILLIAM BASSE JERUSALEM; THE EMANATION OF THE GIANT ALBION: CHAPTER 2 by WILLIAM BLAKE |