Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PATIENCE AND HOPE, by EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-LYTTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PATIENCE AND HOPE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Upon a barren steep
Last Line: Of patience nursing hope -- the angel and the child!
Alternate Author Name(s): Bulwer, Edward; Lytton Of Knebworth, 1st Baron; Lytton, Edward George Earle Bulwer, Lord
Subject(s): Hope; Patience; Optimism


UPON a barren steep,
Above a stormy deep,
I saw an angel watching the wild sea;
Earth was that barren steep,
Time was that stormy deep,
And the opposing shore, eternity!

"Why dost thou watch the wave?
Thy feet the waters lave;
The tide ingulfs thee if thou dost delay."
"Unscath'd I watch the wave,
Time not the angels' grave,
I wait until the ocean ebbs away!"

Hush'd on the angel's breast,
I saw an infant rest,
Smiling upon the gloomy hell below.
"What is the infant prest,
O angel, to thy breast?"
"The child God gave me in the long-ago?

"Mine all upon the earth --
The angel's angel-birth,
Smiling all terror from the howling wild!"
-- Never may I forget
The dream that haunts me yet,
Of Patience nursing Hope -- the angel and the child!





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