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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
REPLY, by JANET NORRIS BANGS First Line: Man prayed his way up from the beast Last Line: Unto the way! Subject(s): Prayer; Religion; Theology | |||
Man prayed his way up from the beast And drove his will with love and pain And each slow failing trial increased His infinitesimal gain. We cannot know if dawning came Upon a snow-wrapped solitude, Or as a spirit-bearing flame Through a dark wood. Perhaps on the appointed day, When great trees fanned the golden air, The wild thing slept, from joyous play, With visions vast and fair. While with the young at her warm breast, Their helplessness beneath her eyes, Some mother-creature sudden guessed At human love; surmise Of the long struggle for the right Against the sum of human ills, Then turned her eyes to a far light Beyond the shadowed hills. Each found, god-hid, a strange belief In something always past the goal That gave them love and work and grief To find a soul. They never saw the stony climb Beyond the foothills of the day, Nor knew they pledged eternal time Unto the Way! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MYSTIC BOUNCE by TERRANCE HAYES MATHEMATICS CONSIDERED AS A VICE by ANTHONY HECHT UNHOLY SONNET 11 by MARK JARMAN SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE COMING OF THE PLAGUE by WELDON KEES |
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