Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, by FERNAND GREGH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God! Whatever the being or the thing we call
Last Line: The tender and grave approval of a mortal.
Subject(s): God; Prayer; Religion; Theology


God! whatever the Being or the Thing we call
By this word once so clear, for us obscure,
That in the darkness we must now endure
Remains most golden that our lips let fall,—

You whom my sage and simple heart adored
In childhood, with hands clasped for evening prayer,
Whom my spirit on its march abandoned there
And with no craven regret or compunction soared,

Toward whom at times I mount in my soul's acclaim,
Feeling, though you are supreme, that we are one,
As woodland flowers aspire to the sun,
Or the base of the flame to the summit of the flame;

In this hour of peace and plenteous delight,
Where lone, still fiery and sad, though calm,
My bare brow stroked by the invisible palm
That is the flowered wind of the summer night,

Finding more faint within me the brief gleam—
Less lofty, now, alas!—of passion's pride,
Before the shadow where you will that we shall hide
I pause a moment on the way, to dream:

God of not long ago, God of love, charity,
Or infinite Matter that a rhythm swells,
Or Thought that in the dull mirror of being wells
And takes as its reflection endless Clarity,

Universal Substance, or Sovereign Reason, Power
Unknown that holds my days—whatso you be,
Force that have granted birth and death to me—
In the humble truth of this quiet, happy hour

Accept in my heart, most fervent, hallowed portal
Where your august flame flickers still, and bends,
For the mystery where soon my being ends,
The tender and grave approval of a mortal.





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