How do these eloquent lecturers of France, And more uncouth expositors of lame Teutonic Saviours, on our creeds advance, And push, in crowds, for Messianic fame! Some in 'great swaths' of learning and untruth Utter themselves, and vent, in weary tomes, Their cruel day-dreams, without pause or ruth, Staunch to a worse apostacy than Rome's; Others, in tenderer tones, our hopes decry, And blight all careless hearts with moral death, And, with sweet voices, summon us to die; But, all alike, reduce our grand old faith, Our full-orb'd creeds, to merest nuclei, With atmospheres of philosophic breath! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AMERICAN NAMES by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET TO SHAKESPEARE by DAVID HARTLEY COLERIDGE THE NAME OF JESUS by JOHN NEWTON A CROWNED POET by ANNE REEVE ALDRICH THE KNIGHTS: DEMOS AND HIS FLATTERER by ARISTOPHANES HABAKKUK'S PRAYER by WILLIAM BROOME TO TIME by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |