I NEVER knew the world in white So beautiful could be As I have seen it here to-day, Beside the wintry sea; A new earth, bride of a new heaven, Has been revealed to me. The sunrise blended wave and cloud In one broad flood of gold, But touched with rose the world's white robes In every curve and fold; While the blue air did over all Its breath in wonder hold. Earth was a statue half awake Beneath her Sculptor's hand: How the Great Master bends with love Above the work He planned, Easy it is, on such a day, To feel and understand. The virgin-birth of Bethlehem, That snow-pure infancy, Warm with the rose-bloom of the skies, -- Life's holiest mystery, -- God's utter tenderness to man, Seems written on all I see. For earth, this vast humanity, The Lord's own body is; To this our life He entereth in, Shares all its destinies; And we shall put His whiteness on When we are wholly His. And so the day dies like a dream, A prophecy divine: Dear Master, through us perfectly Shape Thou Thy white design, Nor let one life be left a blot On this fair world of Thine! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HUMPTY DUMPTY RECITATION [OR, SONG] by CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON THE BOOK [OF THE WORLD] by WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN ON HEARING A LITTLE MUSIC-BOX by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT A SHORT SONG OF CONGRATULATION by SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784) THE BATTLE-SONG OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS by MICHAEL ALTENBURG THE STUBBORN BELIEVER by BERTON BRALEY MAXIMS FOR THE OLD HOUSE: THE PORCH by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH |