Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WISE YOUNG LAWYER SPEAKS, by MILLICENT H. VELHAGEN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WISE YOUNG LAWYER SPEAKS, by                    
First Line: I answered him discreetly - that I know
Last Line: Could he have meant I should not enter in?
Subject(s): Heaven; Law & Lawyers; Paradise


I answered Him discreetly -- that I know --
As one well learned in all the Holy Writ,
And He Himself did quietly say so,
And seemed to praise me greatly, saying it.

"Thou art not far" -- now mark His very talk --
"Not far from out God's Kingdom," then He said.
In thankfulness I stooped upon the walk
And kissed His vesture's fold that from His head

Reached almost to His feet without a seam.
But now as I sit here before the Law,
His face forever comes as in a dream;
His eyes have lost that happy light I saw,

And sadness covers them, as clouds the sun
Across fair Judah's blue and light-kissed skies;
I see no cheering smiles across them run --
Why were there tears within His deep brown eyes?

"Thou art not far," He said to me, "not far!"
My pride is gone and now my soul is fraught
With dreadful fear, for I have felt the bar
Across the praise, a deeper meaning caught.

They call Him Rabbi, Holy Teacher, Friend,
But all are sure He is a prophet too,
A seer of the things that have no end,
Who knows the future as no others do;

Perhaps Elias once again on earth,
Or just a lesser prophet of the age,
Who comes to Israel, from lowly birth,
To mock me now of Abram's heritage.

I have no pleasure in the parchment scroll,
I cannot gloat over the Gentiles' sin;
I hear those saddened tones in thunder roll --
Could He have meant I should not enter in?





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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