Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE DIVINE DOOR-KEEPER by FRANZ WERFEL

First Line: WHEN AS A BOY I PASSED YOU, HUGE AND GRAVE
Last Line: FROM YOUR WHITE MANTLE, SWUNG BETWEEN THE SPHERES.

When as a boy I passed you, huge and grave,
You filled the doorway with your infinite height,
Your cocked hat put heraldic stars to flight,
Your beard was majesty, man with the stave!

And did I, being a child then, misbehave,
Embroidered greybeard, you came in at night,
Weaving with my wild dreams your gentle might,
As I beheld my peaked face in my grave.

Your image, Bible-God, before me rears!
Your patriarch's beard, as in my childish dreams,
Like waves upon your golden breast appears.

The gay galloon makes music to my ears,
And I am soothed by kind and kingly beams
From your white mantle, swung between the spheres.



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