Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BENEATH A PICTURE, by GEORGE MURRAY (1830-1910)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BENEATH A PICTURE, by                    
First Line: Fearfully gazing spirit! Wherefore lies
Last Line: Shrouding the brightness of thine angel form.
Subject(s): Angels; Devil; Future Life; Sin; Satan; Mephistopheles; Lucifer; Beelzebub; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


Fearfully gazing Spirit! wherefore lies
That strange, sad speculation in thine eyes?
Why dost thou shrink, as though beneath a storm,
Shedding the brightness of thine angel form?
Art thou a rebel spirit? Did'st thou fling
Proud threats of old at Heaven's Eternal King,
And, crushed and vanquished, wilt thou soon be hurl'd
Down by the Victor to a demon-world?
It cannot be! Thou art not one of those
Doomed to a dark eternity of woes,
Who gnash their teeth in frenzied pain, and weep,
And vainly pray for everlasting sleep;
No! thou are spotless—all thy sins are dead—
A wreath of glory streams around thy head,
And, if thy countenance is pale and wan,
'Tis that thy love is shown in fear for man.

Yea, fear hath cast a shade upon thy soul,
For worlds are shrinking like a shrivelled scroll,
And all things pass away, and angels gaze
With dim intelligence and strange amaze
On shadowy forms upfloating from the earth,
Roused by the trumpet to a second birth.

Swiftly they soar, as eagles o'er a cloud,
Souls from all climes, a voiceless, troubled crowd,
Sinners and saints, the monarch and the slave,
Bursting at once the bondage of the grave.

Perhaps, amid those sinners there is one
Whom thou dost recognize—an only son—
For whom sad prayers were offered up above
By the deep fondness of a deathless love;
Who, cold and senseless as earth's meanest clod,
Died as he lived, the enemy of God!

And he—the loved, the lost one—cometh now,
With sin's dark curse deep branded on his brow!

Therefore, it is with reason that there lies
That strange, sad speculation in thine eyes;
Therefore, thou shrinkest as beneath a storm,
Shrouding the brightness of thine angel form.





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