WHO hears the sweet soul's call? Surrender, oh, surrender Has triumphed over all! The world's gone back to the old Pretender Battle and metal and brain! The soul being given to Death, Love may not speak again. The full, deep heart of faith Knows when all faith is vain; Knows when the circling destinies desert The plundered heart. So might the soul exclaim In these cold valleys of Care; But oh, the shame, the shame Of such despair! In all the languages Faith uttereth Is no word meaning Death! The Graal so loved Although removed Has gone No farther away; Deep in the tombs of Avalon Stir roots of another day. Beyond all terror and mischance, Beyond the hatreds and the swords, Beyond the springs of utterance Eternal censers glow. Visions may change and revelations go. Veiled be the splendid Face And rare the song of a Grace Always reluctant to be drawn to words. Vanished those hidden things the soul may know And never learn; But these things shall return! Lift not the pall from the bier of death; The soul of the world lies underneath! But roaring legions yet shall hear the word The old initiates heard! The world shall learn through pain That nothing hallowed wholly dies; Love shall return, Faith shall arise, Good things shall come again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN ETERNITY by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH CONTRA MORTEM: THE SUMMER by HAYDEN CARRUTH ON BEING ASKED TO WRITE A POEM AGAINST THE WAR IN VIETNAM by HAYDEN CARRUTH THREE SONNETS by RICHARD WILBUR GHOSTS OF THE OLD YEAR by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |