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God's Funeral
~Siniphous
I
I saw a slowly stepping train
Lined on the brows, scoop-eyed and bent and hoar
Following in files across a twilit plain
A strange and mystic form the foremost bore
II
And by contagious throbs of thought
Or latent knowledge that within me lay
And had already stirred me, I was wrought
To consciousness of sorrow even as they
III
The fore-borne shape, to my blurred eyes
At first seemed man-like, and anon to change
To an amorphous cloud of marvelous size
At times endowed with wings of glorious range
IV
And this phantasmal variousness
Ever possessed it as they drew along:
Yet throughout all it symbolic none the less
Potency vast and loving-kindness strong
V
Almost before I knew I bent
Towards the moving columns without a word
They growing in bulk and numbers as they went
Struck out sick thoughts that could be overheard:
VI
"O man-projected Figure, of late
Imaged as we, thy knell who shall survive?
Whence came it we were tempted to create
One whom we can no longer keep alive?
VII
"Framing him jealous, fierce at first
We gave him justice as the ages rolled
Will to bless those by circumstance accurst
And longsuffering, and mercies manifold
VIII
"And tricked by our own early dream
And need of solace, we grew self-deceived
Our making soon our maker did we deem
And what we had imagined, we believed
IX
"Till in Time's stayless stealthy swing
Uncompromising rude reality
Mangled the Monarch of our fashioning
Who quavered, sank, and now has ceased to be
X
"So, toward our myth's oblivion
Darkling and languid-lipped, we creep and grope
Sadder than those who wept in Babylon
Whose Zion was a still abiding hope
XI
"How sweet it was in years far hied
To start the wheels of day with trustful prayer
To lie down liegely at the eventide
And feel a blest assurance he was there
XII
"And who or what shall fill his place?
Whither will wanderers turn distracted eyes
For some fixed star to stimulate their pace
Towards the goal of their enterprise?"
XIII
Some in the background then I saw
Sweet women, youths, men, all incredulous
Who chimed as one: "This figure is of straw,
This requiem mockery! Still he lives to us!"
XIV
I could not prop their faith, and yet
Many I had known: with all I sympathized
And though struck speechless, I did not forget
That what was mourned for, I too once had prized
XV
Still, how to bear such a loss I deemed
The insistent question for each animate mind
And gazing, to my growing sight there seemed
A pale yet positive gleam low down behind
XVI
Whereof, to lift the general night
A certain few who stood aloof had said
"See you upon the horizon that small light,
Swelling somewhat?" Each mourner shook his head
XVII
And they composed a crowd of whom
Some were right good, and many nigh the best...
Thus dazed and puzzled 'twixt the gleam and gloom
Mechanically I followed with the rest
 YourLovingGuardianAngel · Tue Apr 08, 2008 @ 06:01am · 0 Comments |
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