Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GEORGE ELIOT (SUGGESTED BY UNVEILING OF A STATUE TO GEORGE SAND), by ANNIE MATHESON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GEORGE ELIOT (SUGGESTED BY UNVEILING OF A STATUE TO GEORGE SAND), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: For thee we carve no statue: thou hast willed
Last Line: Still pass the 'cup of strength' from hand to hand.
Subject(s): Eliot, George (1819-1880); Sand, George (1804-1876); Statues; Evans, Mary Ann; Dupin, Amanda. Baronne Dudevant


I.

FOR thee we carve no statue: thou hast willed
Other memorial; a chalice bright
Wrought of the courage doubt could not affright,
Nor death dishearten, with love's offering filled,
Not without anguish; that thy work, once thrilled
With aspiration, hope, and failure, might
Be made a means of strength in some hard fight,
New force from thine endurance be distilled.
And what was fashioned of thy pain will slake
In mortal suffering much immortal thirst.
Thine eyes beheld but man:—a hand divine
Of every cup so offered yet will make,
Though it be marred by many a flaw at first,
An altar-cup to hold the sacred wine.

II.

NOT in a dim cool temple out of sight
Is this fair cup from human gaze withheld—
Not for such purpose did the Master weld
Its ample curves, and make it brim with light,
And on its border curious letters write
That must with patient, reverent care be spelled:
But, where life's fierce sirocco is not quelled,
With living water gleams the chalice bright.
Blind to the Rock that for their thirst was rent,
Under whose shadow in that weary land
The water turns to wine in sacrament,
The travellers, dazzled by the desert sand
And with the dreary journey well-nigh spent,
Still pass the 'cup of strength' from hand to hand.





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