Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE EARTH CRY, by THEODOSIA (PICKERING) GARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE EARTH CRY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How blue the sky is and how sweet the air!
Last Line: That god is good and you have quite forgot.
Alternate Author Name(s): Faulks, Frederick J., Mrs.
Subject(s): Earth; Spiritual Life; World


THE SPIRIT

HOW blue the sky is and how sweet the air!
Sister, is this a meadow where we stray?
See where the blossoms break, and over there
Surely a bird is singing. Yesterday
I had not thought that Heaven was like this.

THE ANGEL

Now was it yesterday?

THE SPIRIT

I only know
I have gone gently on from bliss to bliss;
I am too glad for laughter; nay, I grow
Silent from very peace of comforting.
Yet, sometimes, like a memory of pain,
A shadow of a grief, there seems to sting
A vague, insistent sorrow, like a strain
Of some lost melody that haunts and stays.

THE ANGEL

Men call it "Fear o' Death."

THE SPIRIT

A thing less rife
With fear it is, yet keener.

THE ANGEL

In the ways
Of little earth men call it "Love o' Life."

THE SPIRIT

"Men call it 'Love o' Life'." Perchance so, I
May not remember. Now the bird has ceased,
How still it is! How bluer than the sky
These blossoms are!

THE ANGEL

Our feet bend not the least
Light petal of them. Nay, why stay you, sweet?

THE SPIRIT

Once I knew eyes as blue -- I wonder where!
Why, as I bent just now they seemed to meet
My own again, and sudden strangely bare
And empty seemed my arms! What means this thing?

THE ANGEL

I may not say.

THE SPIRIT

I am so happy -- yet
Something within me seems to turn and cling
To some past joy I might not quite forget.
Hark! Heard you nothing then?

THE ANGEL

I heard not, I.
Perchance a bird sang.

THE SPIRIT

Ah, it was not gay.
So sad it was -- a little wistful cry,
A little cry from very far away,
So weak, so pitiful. O, I would go
Where the voice calls me!

THE ANGEL

Sweet, it may not be.

THE SPIRIT

Hark! there it comes again. Ah, heard you?

THE ANGEL

No.
Turn and forget. Are you not happy? See
Where the path leads to newer, lovelier things
That you have yet to find. Nay, touch my hand.

THE SPIRIT

O, must I follow?

THE ANGEL

As a bird that wings
Its way from height to height, from touch of land
To the blue distances of joy we go.

THE SPIRIT

How beautiful it is! How bright the way!
I know not what it was that hurt me so
A moment since.

THE ANGEL

And are you happy?

THE SPIRIT

Yea,
With a new peace, a comfort that was not
All mine before. Sister, what means it, say?

THE ANGEL

That God is good and you have quite forgot.





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