What if we carved truth in the graveyards? Would the dead arise And push up the stones defaming their bones, And in pained surprise Demand we explain why their peace was undone ... But the dead may sleep—our conventions hold That naught but good of their lives be told. What if we wrote truth in the press? Would the public read If we should sometime delete all the crime? Would headlines recede If life, sound, unspoiled, were the news broadcast? As a people do we a press maintain For national good or for personal gain? What if we preached truth in the pulpit? Would the theme be fresh? Would the world crowd in as it flocked to him Who was God made flesh? Would they know the truth, that it makes them free? ... Would the church be aggrieved as on that day When Christ years ago pointed out the way? What if we chose truth as our lodestar? Could we find the way? Is the truth for you just what I must do? Could we spend our day In blazing the road for timorous feet, Through loneliness, scorn and personal loss? There was One who did—he died on the cross. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LAUS INFANTIUM by WILLIAM CANTON THE NIGHTINGALE; A CONVERSATION POEM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ODE TO SILENCE by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY THE MEETING OF THE WATERS by THOMAS MOORE VANITAS VANITATUM, FR. THE DEVIL'S CASE LAW by JOHN WEBSTER SUMMER APPROACHES by MABEL WARREN ARNOLD THE PHOENIX by ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON |