Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MAURICE DE GUERIN by MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN

First Line: THE OLD WINE FILLED HIM, AND HE SAW, WITH EYES
Last Line: AND LOST HIS GODS IN DEEP, CHRIST-GIVEN REST.
Subject(s): GEURIN, MAURICE DE;
THE old wine filled him, and he saw, with eyes
Anoint of Nature, fauns and dryads fair
Unseen by others; to him maidenhair
And waxen lilacs, and those birds that rise
A-sudden from tall reeds at slight surprise,
Brought charmed thoughts; and in earth everywhere
He, like sad Jaques, found a music rare
As that of Syrinx to old Grecians wise.

A pagan heart, a Christian soul had he,
He followed Christ, yet for dead Pan he sighed,
Till earth and heaven met within his breast;
As if Theocritus in Sicily
Had come upon the Figure crucified
And lost his gods in deep, Christ-given rest.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net