O PITEOUS race! Fearful to look upon, Once standing in high place, Heaven's eldest son. O aged blind Unvenerable! as thou flittest by, I liken thee to him in pagan song, In thy gaunt majesty, The vagrant King, of haughty-purposed mind, Whom prayer nor plague could bend; Wrong'd, at the cost of him who did the wrong, Accursed himself, but in his cursing strong, And honour'd in his end. O Abraham! sire, Shamed in thy progeny; Who to thy faith aspire, Thy Hope deny. Well wast thou given From out the heathen an adopted heir Raised strangely from the dead when sin had slain Thy former-cherish'd care. O holy men, ye first-wrought gems of heaven Polluted in your kin, Come to our fonts, your lustre to regain. O Holiest Lord! ....but Thou canst take no stain Of blood, or taint of sin. Twice in their day Proffer of precious cost Was made, Heaven's hand to stay Ere all was lost. The first prevail'd; Moses was outcast from the promised home, For his own sin, yet taken at his prayer To change his people's doom. Close on their eve, one other ask'd and fail'd; When fervent Paul was fain The accursed tree, as Christ had borne, to bear, No hopeful answer came, -- a Price more rare Already shed in vain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: EDITOR WHEDON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS HOOD by BARTHOLOMEW SIMMONS TO A HIGHLAND GIRL; AT INVERSNAID, UPON LOCH LOMOND by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH UNSEASONABLE SNOWS by ALFRED AUSTIN A MIDNIGHT MEDITATION by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN |