Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE PAGAN’S PLEA Thou Knowest! Oh, Thou Knowest! Thou! Jehovah, Buddha, Jove, or Lord, To Whom all men with one accord, At diverse altars pay their vow, Thou Knowest! Oh, Thou sad-browed Christ, Or be Thou God, or be Thou Man, How I with bleeding feet outran Thy Faith, which not my soul sufficed. My soul, attuned to Arcadie, Drank discord in the city street; I dreamed of Latmos?and my feet Were bloody upon Calvary. I, also bruised with bloody rods, Turned unto These, Incarnate Joy. Gods with the light heart of a boy, And Beauty in the guise of Gods. THE DENIED CHRIST Oh, Face Divinely Human, grave and tender, Deep-lined whereon I trace Sad thoughts, that mar the else ineffable splendour We might not dare to face; Why comest Thou at night, when dews of healing Should visit my sad eyes, Thy robes ungirt, half hiding, half revealing The wounds of sacrifice. Lord, Lord, I see the beauty of Thy Being, And of Thy Words that shine Star-like across dim ages; but the seeing May never make me Thine. The solemn, sacred service of Thy Preaching Lies patent to mine eyes. Yet what my soul might gather of Thy Teaching My Pagan heart denies. I, also, from a Calvary exceeding, I, scourged with bloody rods, Turn from Thy Passion and Thy Brother Pleading To my remembered Gods. For I am Greek of Star-Crowned Hellas, lying An emerald, sun kissed Beneath her skies of sapphire, vainly vying With seas of amethyst. Still must I hear in western woodlands ringing The Syrinx pipes of Pan; Striking old chords of recollection, bringing My vales Arcadian. Still must some Pagan Almond Flower of Beauty To which my heart shall cling Bloom from the barren Aaron’s rod of duty In perfect blossoming. CLOTH O…
