Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MY PAST WHICH IS TO COME, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS Poet's Biography First Line: With cymbal's clang and tap of drums Last Line: Lord, save us from that coming past! Subject(s): Past | ||||||||
With cymbal's clang and tap of drums The brave Salvation Army comes, While hallelujah lass and lad Peal out their march-songs wild and glad. Behind them troops a motley throng, Led by the spirit-moving song, And swift the leader sweeps them all Into the rough Salvation hall. Pauseless, the eager hymn and prayer And exhortation beat the air, Till many a hardened heart is stirred By some bold, God-directed word. Now falls a hush. A voice well known, Though strangely softened in its tone, -- A girl's voice, lately taught to win Its accents back from words of sin, Trembles in untried prayer, that flies, Rude-winged, straight upward to the skies. "O God, forgive my guilty past!" The low voice stammers at the last, -- "And in the past which is to come, O Father, keep me!" How the dumb Speak giant words when Christ within Has loosed the dwarfing bands of sin! Full well she knew, poor penitent, The evil with her nature blent. She knew the guilty past would seek Her white, new future, frail and weak; And at Christ's feet her fear she cast: "Lord, save me from the coming past!" Well for us all to make our own The poor Salvation lassie's groan! Base habits, hated, half subdued; The evil plan; the action rude; White lies, grown black; the writhing thought; Weak worries, born of faith distraught, -- All will return, or first or last. Lord, save us from that coming past! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FERGUS FALLING by GALWAY KINNELL A TIME PAST by DENISE LEVERTOV LAST THINGS by WILLIAM MEREDITH CHRISTMAS TREE by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS THIS MORNING, GOD by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR A BATTLE SONG (WRITTEN IN THE WORLD WAR) by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS |
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