Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELIAB ELIEZER, by JAMES ROANN REED


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELIAB ELIEZER, by                    
First Line: The reverend eliab eliezer
Last Line: Lies one that never was preached!
Subject(s): Clergy; Priests; Rabbis; Ministers; Bishops


THE Reverend Eliab Eliezer
Sat toasting his shins by the grate;
His ponderous brain busy musing
On man's most pitiable state.

Abroad the storm-king was raging,
And the snow was fast whitening the ground;
But its fury disturbed not Eliab,
In his reverie so deep and profound.

For he thought how wicked and sinful
Was poor fallen man at the best;
And even Eliab Eliezer
Was almost as bad as the rest!

And he piously groaned in the spirit,
At the flesh which so leads us astray;
"There's nothing that's good," saith Eliab,
"In these weak, worthless vessels of clay.

"Yea; man is a poor, sinful creature
Even when he tries to do right;
But when he does not, and to ruin
Willing rushes, how dreadful the sight!

"Now, there's swearing Meg, at the corner,
Her case shows plainly, I think,
How wicked our natural hearts are --
How much lower than brutes we can sink.

"I will preach to my people a sermon,
And take old Meg for my text;
And show them how narrow the safe road
That leads from this world to the next."

So he sat himself down at the table,
And began with "Original Sin;"
And by and by Meg and her swearing
Were deftly dovetailed therein.

With "thirdly" and "fourthly" he finished;
Then turned to his grate nice and warm,
When he thought of Widow Mory, and wondered
If she was prepared for the storm.

"I'll call around soon in the morning,
And be sure that all is quite right."
He did; and found food in abundance,
And the grate with a fire glowing bright.

And the widow, with joy fairly weeping,
Told how she was caught by the storm;
Not a morsel of food for her children --
Not a coal her poor hovel to warm!

And that they would surely have perished, --
Too cold to go out and beg, --
When pitying Heaven sent succor
By such a strange angel -- Old Meg!

Then a light slowly dawned on Eliab --
I can't say what conclusion he reached;
But I know, stowed away 'mong his sermons,
Lies one that never was preached!





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