@3Oh foolish people, and without understanding; that have eyes and see not.@1 St. Francis, Buddha, Tolstoi, and Saint John— Friends, if you four, as pilgrims, hand in hand, Returned, the hate of earth once more to dare, And walked upon the water and the land, If you, with words celestial, stopped these kings For sober conclave, ere their battle great, Would they for one deep instant then discern Their crime, their heart-rot, and their fiends' estate? If you should float above the battle's front, Pillars of cloud, of fire that does not slay, Bearing a fifth within your regal train, The Son of David in his strange array— If, in his majesty, he towered toward Heaven, Would they have hearts to see or understand? ... Nay, for he hovers there to-night we know, Thorn-crowned above the water and the land. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN HYMN IN HONOUR OF BEAUTY by EDMUND SPENSER ODE TO DUTY by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH TIPPERARY: 2. AS THE TRANSLATORS WOULD HAVE INTERLINED IT . . . by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS KINDNESS TO ANIMALS by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY PASSIVE PARTICIPLE'S PETITION by JOHN BYROM STANZAS COMPOSED DURING A THUNDERSTORM by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |