Above the ruin of God's holy place, Where man-forsaken lay the bleeding rood, Whose hands, when men had craved substantial food, Gave not, nor folded when they cried, Embrace, I saw exalted in the latter days Her whom west winds with natal foam bedewed, Wafted toward Cyprus, lily-breasted, nude, Standing with arms out-stretched and flower-like face. And, sick with all those centuries of tears Shed in the penance for factitious woe, Once more I saw the nations at her feet, For Love shone in their eyes, and in their ears Come unto me, Love beckoned them, for lo! The breast your lips abjured is still as sweet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPIGRAM: A LAME BEGGAR by JOHN DONNE EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: CONVOY ESCORT by RUDYARD KIPLING ON CRITICS; IN IMITATION OF ANACREON by MATTHEW PRIOR THE PATRIOTIC MERCHANT PRINCE by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 32. AL-KHABIR by EDWIN ARNOLD TWELVE SONNETS: 8 by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) TO MISS FERRIER; ENCLOSING THE ELEGY ON SIR J. H. BLAIR by ROBERT BURNS |