Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON MEETING A REPROBATE, by ANNA BUNSTON DE BARY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON MEETING A REPROBATE, by                    
First Line: Small need to hang your head, avert your eye
Last Line: A little sponge of love upon a reed.
Subject(s): Love; Sympathy; Empathy


SMALL need to hang your head, avert your eye,
Because, in good sooth, I am passing, I.
For, though responsible for healthy blood
And privilege of birth, what actual good
Have I to set against your actual sin?
There was so little you could lose or win
As you know values, who were taught at school
To reckon these in pounds (with many a rule
For handling money you would never see),
And made a brute of some ability.
For you the downs are but a place for sheep,
And God's green grass is only so much "keep."
For you no goat-foot Pan pipes by the lake,
No shy, elusive dryad haunts the brake.
You have no harp at noon beneath the trees,
No harp like David's, and no melodies.
For you no angels, when the tired larks cease,
Take up the strain of joy, goodwill, and peace.
You lead your sheep from fold to fold, nor think
A Shepherd would lead you. You eat and drink,
And fill your belly with the husks of swine,
Because you never tasted Bread and Wine.
We kept you out from Paradise because
Ourselves were never there, nor do we pause
From our muck-raking work to think, perchance,
Clay is not all a man's inheritance.
True, ev'n for you there was a better choice,
I, too, wear sackcloth, when I might rejoice,
And had you dared to turn your eyes on me,
Mine must have dropped in shame and sympathy.
You hang upon your cross in middle air,
The cross of your misdeeds, but we who stare
Upon your death, we gave the curséd wood
And tools, our heads are heavy with your blood.
O malefactor! could you understand,
I, fellow-thief, would ask to kiss your hand,
And offer to your lips, if you would heed,
A little sponge of love upon a reed.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net