Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CONFESSION, by EDNA S. MCKINLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CONFESSION, by                    
First Line: I sat in church, the opening hymn was sung
Last Line: And so I spent my hour with god.
Subject(s): Churches; Confessions; Sea; Trees; Cathedrals; Ocean


I sat in church, the opening hymn was sung,
The collect read, the lesson was begun --
Mechanically I bowed my head in prayer,
I sat in church -- and yet I was not there.

Through open window came the warm Spring sun,
It laid a scarf of gold across my knee,
A blue-bird, with its mating just begun,
Was swaying on the budding apple tree --

It broke the silence with a long, sweet note,
That burst like flame from red-painted throat.
Its liquid tones rose high, and mounted higher --
A challenge to our stately village choir.

The green slope fed a fat, contented cow.
Beyond the slope, a patchwork quilt was seen.
Its brown squares cut by Farmer Martin's plow,
Had fashioned for the eye a color scheme.

The rose-pink of the budding maple tree
Made wreathes of roses in the pinetree's hair --
The blue sky was a vast and endless sea,
With fleecy ships of white a-sailing there.

The droning of a busy honey bee
Accompanied my reverie,
And no one knew where I had been
When I arose with the "Amen".

To me the sermon was as aught,
The text and hymns were all forgot,
My soul had soared 'twixt sky and sod --
And so I spent my hour with God.





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