Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IF I, by WILL CHAMBERLAIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IF I, by                    
First Line: If I shall find some other world
Last Line: Or lash me forth from paradise.
Subject(s): Heaven; Prayer; Paradise


If I shall find some other world
Where never bud of sin occurs,
And pain is not, nor suffering,
Nor heartache ever grimly blurs;
If I shall know serenity
All rippleless and without prod,
I wonder if I should not cry,
At last, for pain and tempest, God?

I do not know. I do not know.
But this I know—my raptures seem
To follow at Old Travail's heels—
The joy divine, the holy dream.
I do not know, but this to me
As noontime sky is frank and clear—
That out of cloud and lightning flash
The rainbows' colorings appear

A placid Eden bower I think
Would be as Gobi lusterless.
Eternal harps would hound my ears
With dins my soul would long to miss;
And, shorn of struggle and unrest
I venture soon I'd lift my eyes
In prayer to God to take it back,
Or lash me forth from Paradise.





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