Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN, by MARCUS S. C. RICKARDS



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN, by                    
First Line: Tho' cool the hour, a fever blazed within
Last Line: Became our choice.
Subject(s): Beauty; Dreams; Sin; Truth; Voices; Nightmares


THO' cool the hour, a fever blazed within
The Pair that stood,
Stript of fresh innocence, beguiled by sin,
Disclaimed of Good --
When lo! His footfall, and each culprit flees
To lurk amid umbrageous fruitful trees,
Which, as the Voice floats down the evening breeze,
Their forms seclude.

And we, their coward heirs, the guilt repeat,
And learn the guile:
Happy and free, forbidden fruit we eat,
And feeling vile,
Our naked spirits catch the herald stride
Of coming Judgment, and in terror hide
Mid leaves and fruitage, hoping to abide
In safe exile.

All sweet for food, and pleasant to the gaze,
Those trees of Joy
Dream on in loveliness, while mid the maze
We feed and toy:
In rich profusion fruit around us bends;
Soft Pleasure her luxurious story spends;
Art, Beauty, Knowledge, each a magic lends
Faint hearts to buoy.

In vain, in vain! the fuller the delight
The more they sink;
For through the tangled arbour, His keen sight
Has pierced, we think:
Else, why the awful clarion tones that sound
Clear above laugh and song mid Pleasure's round,
Forewarning us that none that Truth has found
From doom may slink.

"Where art thou?" so the restless, fevered heart
Translates that Voice --
"Thou, whose rebellion merits penal smart,
Canst thou rejoice?"
Lord God! before thy Majesty we fall,
Nor shirk the sentence, since we welcome all
Thy Grace provides, sad only that sin's thrall
Became our Choice.





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