Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BALLAD OF ERRANT VESPERS, by ROBERT CAMERON ROGERS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BALLAD OF ERRANT VESPERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The wind, when comes late afternoon
Last Line: Than pray a thousand times.
Subject(s): Prayer


THE wind, when comes late afternoon,
Sweeps up from vespers bells the croon
Of shadowed sanctity and soon
Bids it forget its prayer.

It carries it beyond the town,
Beyond the Mission and the frown
Of deep-niched figures that look down
On joys they may not share,

And yonder, where the ranges keep
Eternal tryst with sky and sleep,
It calls no longer men to weep
Their sins and kneel to pray,

But turns into a mazy thing,
A pagan and a lazy thing,
A catch to make a Trappist sing,
And harry nymphs all day,

A lilting sort of bacchanal,
Most irreligious, passional,
With choruses antiphonal
Of river, wind, and tree,

And thus it babbles in the ferns
Until at dawn the wind returns,
And sweeps it up again and learns
How ribald it can be.

So just as matins breaks the hush
Near five o'clock and with the thrush
Stir folk abroad with tuneful rush
Of neatly mingled chimes,

All fresh with dew and valley loam,
The truant vesper-call flits home,
But Mary knows 'twould rather roam
Than pray a thousand times.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net