Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE TWO QUESTIONS, by ALICE MEYNELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A riddling world!' one cried Last Line: "the flail, the chaff, the tares." Alternate Author Name(s): Meynell, Wilfrid, Mrs.; Thompson, Alice Christina Subject(s): Sin | ||||||||
"ARIDDLING world!" one cried. "If pangs must be, would God that they were sent To the impure, the cruel, and passed aside The holy innocent!" But I, "Ah no, no, no! Not the clean heart transpierced; not tears that fall For a child's agony; nor a martyr's woe; Not these, not these appal. "Not docile motherhood, Dutiful, frequent, closed in all distress; Not shedding of the unoffending blood; Not little joy grown less; "Not all-benign old age With dotage mocked; not gallantry that faints And still pursues; not the vile heritage Of sin's disease in saints; "Not these defeat the mind. For great is that abjection, and august That irony. Submissive we shall find A splendour in that dust. "Not these puzzle the will; Not these the yet unanswered question urge. But the unjust stricken; but the hands that kill Lopped; but the merited scourge; "The sensualist at fast; The merciless felled; the liar in his snares. The cowardice of my judgment sees, aghast, The flail, the chaff, the tares." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SEVEN STREAMS OF NEVIS by GALWAY KINNELL CHANEL NO. 5 by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR BROTHERS: 4. IN MY OWN DEFENSE by LUCILLE CLIFTON THE RING AND THE CASTLE by AMY LOWELL APPELLATE JURISDICTION by MARIANNE MOORE I AM THE WAY' by ALICE MEYNELL |
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