Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHILDREN OF GRACE, ASLEEP, by HOWARD MCKINLEY CORNING


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHILDREN OF GRACE, ASLEEP, by                    
First Line: We never climbed beyond the town
Last Line: Labored -- and lie.
Subject(s): Children; Grace; Sleep; Childhood


We never climbed beyond the town
Where one dark hill thrust toward the sky
Grown ominous with black renown
That holy living is damned by.

We'd just to till our fields and keep
Our fences circuitous of toil;
And as we rose, so turn to sleep
In rustic weariness of soil.

The seasons through we came to sow
The many pastures that we turned;
And came at harvest time to mow
The sheaves our laboring had earned.

Always four fences turned to mark out
The circumspection of our days;
Six suns to walk our fields about;
One hallelujah of soul's praise.

The weeks were something gathered up
Of sweat and prayers and hungering;
Of wheaten cake and nectared cup --
And nights remembering the spring,

When urgent evenings from the plough,
That led us laggards to repose,
We dreamed of hot breath at the brow --
But knew no heartache at the close. . . .

Four fences mark our toiled-out days,
Below a hill that scorns the sky,
Where we, the heritors of grace,
Labored -- and lie.





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