Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WORSHIP, by JOHN COWPER POWYS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WORSHIP, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Broken and maimed and bruised
Last Line: And the laughing lovers worship god.
Subject(s): Death; God; Sea; Worship; Dead, The; Ocean


Broken and maimed and bruised
We beat on the iron gate
And cry for the word refused
With a cry most desolate.

From the sea's edge windy and lone,
From the land's heart troubled and dim,
The moan of the dead joins with our moan
And the cry goes up to Him.

And cold on his ultimate throne
His arms hang stiff by his side,
And his mouth falls open and wide,
Pitiful -- frozen to stone.
His dead eyes stare from his face,
His dead hands stiffen apart
And the vultures of space
Flap screeching about his heart.

But while we beat at the gate
And cry, with our dead, to the Dead,
The great Sun, splendid, elate,
Rises above our head,
And heedless of that lost thing
Pitiful there in space,
And heedless of our doomed race,
The children play on the sun-warmed sod
And the laughing lovers worship God.





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