Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE YOUNG NEOPHYTE by ALICE MEYNELL

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHO KNOWS WHAT DAYS I ANSWER FOR TODAY?
Last Line: AND LAY THE CRUCIFIX ON THIS SILENT HEART.

Who knows what days I answer for today:
Giving the bud I give the flower. I bow
This yet unfaded and a faded brow;
Bending these knees and feeble knees, I pray.

Thoughts yet unripe in me I bend one way,
Give one repose to pain I know not now,
One leaven to joy that comes, I guess not how.
I dedicate my fields when Spring is grey.

Oh, rash! (I smile) to pledge my hidden wheat.
I fold today at altars far apart
Hands trembling with what toils? In their retreat
I seal my love to-be, my folded art.
I light the tapers at my head and feet,
And lay the crucifix on this silent heart.





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