Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE NEW APOCRYPHA: TRIBUTE MONEY, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS


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THE NEW APOCRYPHA: TRIBUTE MONEY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: This is all of the story
Last Line: Unknown to the heart of a child.


(Matthew, Chapter XXII:24-27.)

This is all of the story
Capernaum stood in the way,
The takers of tribute came:
"Does your master tribute pay?"

And Peter ran to Jesus,
And Jesus answered him: "Nay!
Do the kings of the earth have tribute
From their own children, pray?

"Or do they get it of strangers?"
And Peter answered him: "Yea."
Then Jesus said: "This is Galilee,
Should Galileans pay?

"But yet lest we offend them
There's a fish out there in the bay
With a silver coin in his mouth --
Go catch the fish and pay."

Did Jesus mean to mock
The tariff laws of the day:
That Peter could catch the fish
As likely as he would pay?

Did he mean to resist or yield
If Peter was lucky that day?
I, Matthew, tell you no more,
And Mark and Luke don't say.

Did we enter the gate, or sit
Where the rocks and olives are gray?
Right then there was better matter
For a follower to portray.

The multitude gathered. He called
A child to him from its play,
And set the child in our midst;
And then he began to say: --

"This is the kingdom of heaven."
And he took its hand and smiled.
"The kingdom of heaven," he said,
"Is like the heart of a child."

And I say, if this be true,
The Kingdom is surely defiled
By laws, and tariffs and kings
Unknown to the heart of a child.





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