Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO LOVE, AT LAST, THE VICTORY, by DAVID STARR JORDAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO LOVE, AT LAST, THE VICTORY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There was a man who saw god face to face
Last Line: The marvel of the life that yet shall be.
Subject(s): God


There was a man who saw God face to face.
His countenance and vestments evermore
Glowed with a light that never shone before,
Saving from him who saw God face to face.
And men, anear him for a little space,
Were sorely vexed at the unwonted light.
Those whom the light did blind rose angrily.
They bore his body to a mountain height
And nailed it to a tree; then went their way;
And he resisted not nor said them nay,
Because that he had seen God face to face.

There was a man who saw Life face to face,
And ever as he walked from day to day,
The deathless mystery of being lay
Plain as the path he trod in loneliness;
And each deep-hid inscription could he trace;
How men have fought and loved and fought again;
How in lone darkness souls cried out for pain;
How each green foot of sod from sea to sea
Was red with blood of men slain wantonly;
How tears of pity warm as summer rain
Again and ever washed the stains away,
Leaving to Love, at last, the victory.
Above the strife and hate and fever pain,
The squalid talk and walk of men.
He saw the vision changeless as the stars
That shone through temple gates or prison bars,
Or to the body nailed upon the tree,
Through each mean action of the life that is,
The marvel of the Life that yet shall be.





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