Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SUABIAN LEGEND, by FORD MADOX FORD


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SUABIAN LEGEND, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God made all things
Last Line: So soon: so soon.)
Alternate Author Name(s): Hueffer, Ford Hermann; Hueffer, Ford Madox
Subject(s): Creation; Death; God; Dead, The


GOD made all things,
And, seeing they were good,
He set a limit to the springs,
And circumscribed the flood,
Stayed the aspiring mountain ranges,
And said: "Henceforth shall be no changes";
On all the beasts he set that ban,
And drew his line 'twixt woman and 'twixt man.

God, leaning down
Over the world beneath,
Surveyed his changeless work:
No creature drew its breath,
No cloud approached with rain unto the hills,
No waves white on the ocean, and no breeze;
Still lay the cattle in the meads; the rills
Hung in the tufts of moss; the trees
Seemed carven out of metal; manhood stood
Drooping his silent head by womanhood.
Nor voice of beasts nor any song of bird
Nor sound of wind were from the woodlands heard.

God, leaning down
Over the world beneath,
Knitted his brows to a frown
And fashioned Death:

The clouds faded around the mountain heads,
The rills and streams sank in their stony beds,
The ocean shivered and lay still and dead,
And man fled and the beasts fled
Into the crevices of mountains round;
The grass withered on the sod;
Beetles and lizards faded into the ground:
And God
Looked on his last-made creature, Death, and frowned.
He paced in thought awhile
His darkened and resounding courts above:
They brightened at his smile:
He had imagined Love
(Oh! help us ere we die: we die too soon;
We, who are born at dawn, have but one noon,
And fade e'er nightfall). ...
Then the Lord made Love.
And, looking down to Earth, he saw
The green flame out across each shaw,
The worms came creeping o'er the lawns,
Sweet showers in the pleasant dawns,
The lapwings crying in the fens,
The young lambs leaping from their pens,
The waves run tracing lines of white
On the cerulean ocean. But at night
Man slept with woman in his arms.
Then thunder shook
At the awful rrown of God. His way he took
Over the trembling hills to their embowered nook.

But standing there above those sleeping things
God was aware of one whose insubstantial wings
A-quiver formed a penthouse o'er the place:
Therefore God stayed his hand, and sighed
To see how lip matched lip, side mated side,
And the remembered joy on each sealed face:
Therefore God stayed his hand and smiled,
Shook his tremendous head and went his way;
Love being his best begotten child,
And having over Death and Sin God's sway.

(Oh! help us ere we die: we die too soon;
We, who are born at dawn, have but one noon,
And fade e'er nightfall. Oh! Eternal One,
Help us to know short joy whose course is run
So soon: so soon.)





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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