Poems of Nature, part 5, Religious Poems 1

Project Gutenberg EBook, Religious Poems, Part 1., by Whittier
Volume II., The Works of Whittier: Poems of Nature, Poems
Subjective and Reminiscent, Religious Poems
#17 in our series by
John Greenleaf Whittier
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Title: Religious Poems, Part 1., From Poems of Nature,
Poems Subjective and Reminiscent and Religious Poems Volume II.,
The Works of Whittier
Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
Release Date: Dec, 2005 [EBook #9572]
[Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on October 2,
2003]
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Language: English
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, RELIGIOUS
POEMS I. ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger [[email protected]
]
POEMS OF NATURE
POEMS SUBJECTIVE AND REMINISCENT
RELIGIOUS POEMS
B Y
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
CONTENTS:
RELIGIOUS POEMS:
THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN

THE CALL OF THE CHRISTIAN
THE CRUCIFIXION

PALESTINE
HYMNS FROM THE FRENCH OF LAMARTINE
I. ENCORE UN HYMNE
II. LE CRI DE L'AME
THE
FAMILIST'S HYMN
EZEKIEL
WHAT THE VOICE SAID

THE ANGEL OF PATIENCE
THE WIFE OF MANOAH TO
HER HUSBAND
MY SOUL AND I
WORSHIP
THE HOLY
LAND
THE REWARD
THE WISH OF TO-DAY
ALL'S
WELL
INVOCATION
QUESTIONS OF LIFE
FIRST-DAY
THOUGHTS
TRUST
TRINITAS
THE SISTERS
"THE
ROCK" IN EL GHOR
THE OVER-HEART
THE SHADOW
AND THE LIGHT
THE CRY OF A LOST SOUL
ANDREW
RYKMAN'S PRAYER
RELIGIOUS POEMS

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
Where Time the measure of his hours
By changeful bud and blossom
keeps,
And, like a young bride crowned with flowers,
Fair Shiraz in
her garden sleeps;
Where, to her poet's turban stone,
The Spring her gift of flowers
imparts,
Less sweet than those his thoughts have sown
In the warm
soil of Persian hearts:
There sat the stranger, where the shade
Of scattered date-trees thinly
lay,
While in the hot clear heaven delayed
The long and still and
weary day.
Strange trees and fruits above him hung,
Strange odors filled the
sultry air,
Strange birds upon the branches swung,
Strange insect
voices murmured there.
And strange bright blossoms shone around,
Turned sunward from the
shadowy bowers,
As if the Gheber's soul had found
A fitting home
in Iran's flowers.
Whate'er he saw, whate'er he heard,
Awakened feelings new and
sad,--
No Christian garb, nor Christian word,
Nor church with
Sabbath-bell chimes glad,
But Moslem graves, with turban stones,
And mosque-spires gleaming
white, in view,
And graybeard Mollahs in low tones
Chanting their
Koran service through.
The flowers which smiled on either hand,
Like tempting fiends, were
such as they
Which once, o'er all that Eastern land,
As gifts on
demon altars lay.
As if the burning eye of Baal
The servant of his Conqueror knew,

From skies which knew no cloudy veil,
The Sun's hot glances smote

him through.
"Ah me!" the lonely stranger said,
"The hope which led my footsteps
on,
And light from heaven around them shed,
O'er weary wave and
waste, is gone!
"Where are the harvest fields all white,
For Truth to thrust her sickle
in?
Where flock the souls, like doves in flight,
From the dark
hiding-place of sin?
"A silent-horror broods o'er all,--
The burden of a hateful spell,--

The very flowers around recall
The hoary magi's rites of hell!
"And what am I, o'er such a land
The banner of the Cross to bear?

Dear Lord, uphold me with Thy hand,
Thy strength with human
weakness share!"
He ceased; for at his very feet
In mild rebuke a floweret smiled;

How thrilled his sinking heart to greet
The Star-flower of the Virgin's
child!
Sown by some wandering Frank, it drew
Its life from alien air and
earth,
And told to Paynim sun and dew
The story of the Saviour's
birth.
From scorching beams, in kindly mood,
The Persian plants its beauty
screened,
And on its pagan sisterhood,
In love, the Christian
floweret leaned.
With tears of joy the wanderer felt
The darkness of his long despair

Before that hallowed symbol melt,
Which God's dear love had
nurtured there.
From Nature's face, that simple flower
The lines of sin and sadness
swept;
And Magian