Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CHRISTENING, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CHRISTENING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They took him to the hoary church
Last Line: For christopher upon his breast.
Subject(s): Baptism; Christenings


THEY took him to the hoary church,
And waited near the font awhile,
With something new of sacredness
In handclasp, whisper, look and smile.
The glorious mantle of a saint,
Set in a stained-glass window, poured
A beam of scarlet light across
The child they offered to the Lord.

The mother, never quite content
With any folding of his gown,
So smoothed him that his limpid eyes
No longer kept the eyelids down.
Then she who mothered him in God
Shaped an ungiven kiss; and now
The trusted Vicar came to sign
The Cross of Christ upon his brow.

But he, unwitting how his frock
Was puckered, or his sash awry,
Gazed at a Shepherd with a lamb
Beneath a glassy spread of sky;
And then, before the reverent priest
Had marked him soldier, kinsman, heir,
He lifted up his weakling arms
Toward the Saviour imaged there.

'Twas felt by all who saw him thus
Enrol himself, at unawares,
That Heaven accepted him without
The drops of water and the prayers;
But when between his little brows
The sign of Calvary was pressed,
They knew that Christ had found a place
For Christopher upon His breast.





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