Upon the roll of folly and of crime Their lives a fact, for intellectual scorn - But more for Christian pity, so forlorn And abject stands it in the stream of Time! The Imperial mandate ran, that, on a day Held sacred to the Lord of limitations, The Christian faith should have its conquering way Barred up, and so the disenchanted nations Go back to Jove and Phoebus and the fanes; Messiah! and the block-God Terminus! O stolid humour! O elaborate pains, All lost and wasted! for it is not thus That truth is stopt; Saints bled, but idols fell, The Church bowed eastward still, and all was well. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEVOURER OF NATIONS by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET GOD'S YOUTH by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE TWO MYSTERIES by MARY ELIZABETH MAPES DODGE THE BATTLE-CRY OF FREEDOM by GEORGE FREDERICK ROOT PEACE ON EARTH by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE LIVING GOD by ABRAHAM IBN EZRA GRACE AND STRENGTH by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |