Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MY PAST WHICH IS TO COME, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MY PAST WHICH IS TO COME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: With cymbal's clang and tap of drums
Last Line: Lord, save us from that coming past!
Subject(s): Past


With cymbal's clang and tap of drums
The brave Salvation Army comes,
While hallelujah lass and lad
Peal out their march-songs wild and glad.
Behind them troops a motley throng,
Led by the spirit-moving song,
And swift the leader sweeps them all
Into the rough Salvation hall.

Pauseless, the eager hymn and prayer
And exhortation beat the air,
Till many a hardened heart is stirred
By some bold, God-directed word.

Now falls a hush. A voice well known,
Though strangely softened in its tone, --
A girl's voice, lately taught to win
Its accents back from words of sin,
Trembles in untried prayer, that flies,
Rude-winged, straight upward to the skies.

"O God, forgive my guilty past!"
The low voice stammers at the last, --
"And in the past which is to come,
O Father, keep me!"

How the dumb
Speak giant words when Christ within
Has loosed the dwarfing bands of sin!
Full well she knew, poor penitent,
The evil with her nature blent.
She knew the guilty past would seek
Her white, new future, frail and weak;
And at Christ's feet her fear she cast:
"Lord, save me from the coming past!"

Well for us all to make our own
The poor Salvation lassie's groan!
Base habits, hated, half subdued;
The evil plan; the action rude;
White lies, grown black; the writhing thought;
Weak worries, born of faith distraught, --
All will return, or first or last.
Lord, save us from that coming past!





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