Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PRAYERS I SAW ASCEND, by BERTHA L. GIBBONS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PRAYERS I SAW ASCEND, by                    
First Line: I never saw a prayer ascend to god
Last Line: But many a prayer I saw ascend to god.
Subject(s): Ireland; Prayer; Irish


I never saw a prayer ascend to God
Until I went to Ireland.

Incense breathing from a censer
Simulates a prayer,
But it is colorless,
Its swinging mechanism apparent
To eye and ear.

In Ireland,
From every humble roof of thatch,
From the one peat fire through the one chimney,
Household prayers arise,
Pale blue, transparent,
Natural and unlabored as a placid breath,
So nearly matching the calm of heaven's blue
As scarcely to be discerned
Till seen against a tree's green foliage.
Fresh and ever young,
They seem the essence made visible
Of that spirit which keeps forever young
The blue eyes, smiling from weathered faces,
Of the mothers of Ireland.

In Ireland I did not see
The little people of the glen,
But many a prayer I saw ascend to God.





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