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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A PILGRIM by ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY

First Line: ACROSS THE TRODDEN CONTINENT OF YEARS
Last Line: ONLY THY DEVOTEE!
Subject(s): PILGRIMAGES & PILGRIMS;

A CROSS the trodden continent of years
To shrines of long ago,
My heart, a hooded pilgrim, turns with tears—
For could I know
That in the temple of thy constancy
There still may burn a taper lit for me,
'Twould be a star in starless heaven, to show
That Heaven could be.

Bent with the weight of all that I desired
And all that I forswore,
My heart roams, mendicant, forlorn and tired,
From door to door,
Begging of every stern-faced memory
An alms of pity—just to come to thee,
No more thy knight, thy champion no more—
Only thy devotee!



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