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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, by FERNAND GREGH Poet's Biography First Line: God! Whatever the being or the thing we call Last Line: The tender and grave approval of a mortal. Subject(s): God; Prayer; Religion; Theology | |||
God! whatever the Being or the Thing we call By this word once so clear, for us obscure, That in the darkness we must now endure Remains most golden that our lips let fall, You whom my sage and simple heart adored In childhood, with hands clasped for evening prayer, Whom my spirit on its march abandoned there And with no craven regret or compunction soared, Toward whom at times I mount in my soul's acclaim, Feeling, though you are supreme, that we are one, As woodland flowers aspire to the sun, Or the base of the flame to the summit of the flame; In this hour of peace and plenteous delight, Where lone, still fiery and sad, though calm, My bare brow stroked by the invisible palm That is the flowered wind of the summer night, Finding more faint within me the brief gleam Less lofty, now, alas!of passion's pride, Before the shadow where you will that we shall hide I pause a moment on the way, to dream: God of not long ago, God of love, charity, Or infinite Matter that a rhythm swells, Or Thought that in the dull mirror of being wells And takes as its reflection endless Clarity, Universal Substance, or Sovereign Reason, Power Unknown that holds my dayswhatso you be, Force that have granted birth and death to me In the humble truth of this quiet, happy hour Accept in my heart, most fervent, hallowed portal Where your august flame flickers still, and bends, For the mystery where soon my being ends, The tender and grave approval of a mortal. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MYSTIC BOUNCE by TERRANCE HAYES MATHEMATICS CONSIDERED AS A VICE by ANTHONY HECHT UNHOLY SONNET 11 by MARK JARMAN SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE COMING OF THE PLAGUE by WELDON KEES |
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