Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ECHOES, LONG AFTER by JAMES HOWARD FLOWER

First Line: I HEAR A VOICE NO OTHER MAN CAN HEAR
Last Line: NOR SPILL DEVOTION AT A FAIRER SHRINE.
Subject(s): PAST;

I hear a Voice no other man can hear,
Blown o'er these thrice three-hundred leagues of land:
Its import what the common stander-near
Would ridicule if he could understand;
For, from the prudent present world withdrawn,
Self-tranced, I hearken that which bids me flee
The stubborn heartless fact, insist upon
The Beauty of wild Impossibility!

I haunt a Past where I no more have part,
Am faithful to a visionary thing,—
The Saint is gone, but still the tapers shine!—
Kneel to a hopeless Hope,—I cannot cling
To holier altar than Her heavenly heart,
Nor spill devotion at a fairer shrine.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net