Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TURRIS EBURNEA by ANONYMOUS

First Line: WHAT PALACE-TEMPLE OF THE MYSTIC EAST
Last Line: "WITH EARTH FOR HEAVEN, AND CLIMB, AND REACH GOD'S FEET"

What palace-temple of the mystic East
Bequeathed this title to thy Litany?
What wide courts jubilant with minstrelsy,
What tower-chambers whence the weary priest
Might watch the still sky when the psalms had ceased --
Watch the still spires of fretted ivory,
And pass to God in lonely ecstasy,
And with the Angels hold sublimer feast?
Mary, within thy courts all nations meet
To praise the King whose citadel thou art
And temple, and the altar is thy heart,
And thy white soul his chosen mercy-seat;
And by thy stair we shall find strength to part
With earth for heaven, and climb, and reach God's feet.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net