ALL day long, year after year, Maid and man and priest and lay Wander in from crowded streets, And through the long, cool gallery stray. And with them, in the fading light, We loiter past the pictured wall, Till lo! a face before us comes, And something wistful seems to fall From two strange eyes that speak to all; For here a priest, and there a maid, Two lads, a soldier, and a @3bonne,@1 Before the rail their steps have stayed. What message bore this awful face, Through all the waning centuries fled? What says it to the gazer now? What said it to the myriad dead Who came and went like us to-day, And, pausing here in silence, all In silence laid their weight of sins Before this still confessional? A face more sad man never dreamed, A face more sweet man never wrought; So solemn-sad, so solemn-sweet, Serenely set in quiet thought. The silent sunlight slips away, The soldiers pass, the @3bonne@1 goes by; The painter drapes his copy in, And stops his work and heaves a sigh. And followed by those eyes, that have The patience of eternity, We carry to the bustling street Their loving @3Benedicite.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BETRAND AND GOURGAUD TALK OVER OLD TIMES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS LIFE'S MIRROR by MARY AINGE DE VERE A DOUBLE STANDARD by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER JOAN OF ARC IN RHEIMS by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE LILY IN CRYSTAL by ROBERT HERRICK |