The task is done. The student look Bends anxiously to a newer book, Where the torn and blotted page runs red, And each stamped line runs stark with dead, As a world's wounds gape in agony And the spent current drips out slenderly. And the new task waits where fire-lit lands Wait sore the touch of master hands; Wait sore the spirit of Galilee, The Master's touch and sympathy. The new task, masters. Yours to be Of the world-work; chrism of agony Or the spirit's touch and sympathy, Till dreams lift fair over dumb, charred lands— Fabric that speaks of master hands— Till the page glows white where the page runs red, With the stars' requiem for the line's stark dead, And the blue bends hushed, brave and comforted. This the task, O masters new-panoplied, By the touch of the Master sanctified. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ROBERT BROWNING by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR A VOICE PROPHETIC by WALT WHITMAN THE LIGHT OF ASIA by EDWIN ARNOLD THE WILD GEESE by MICHAEL JOSEPH BARRY STOKLEWATH; OR, THE CUMBRIAN VILLAGE by SUSANNA BLAMIRE THE SPIRIT IS TRUE by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |