27.12.2010, 12:10
THE LUXOR NATIVITY.
A full-blown, modern, speculative sage
Is on us, cramm'd with Egypt—with his dream
Of Nile he seeks the folds of Bethlehem,
And writes ' from Luxor ' on the sacred page ;
The ' young child ' came from Egypt ; yet not so.
As this vain scribe would have it—not the son
Of an old Coptic frieze, but the Holy One
Of Israel, Virgin-born ! O shame and woe !
But, O my Church, thou standest ever sure,
Though meteors through thine open portals glow.
Discolouring with strange lights, that come and go,
Thine altars, and thy fonts, and vestments pure —
Flashing their alien tinct on the true grain
Of thy great dogmas—Evermore in vain.
A full-blown, modern, speculative sage
Is on us, cramm'd with Egypt—with his dream
Of Nile he seeks the folds of Bethlehem,
And writes ' from Luxor ' on the sacred page ;
The ' young child ' came from Egypt ; yet not so.
As this vain scribe would have it—not the son
Of an old Coptic frieze, but the Holy One
Of Israel, Virgin-born ! O shame and woe !
But, O my Church, thou standest ever sure,
Though meteors through thine open portals glow.
Discolouring with strange lights, that come and go,
Thine altars, and thy fonts, and vestments pure —
Flashing their alien tinct on the true grain
Of thy great dogmas—Evermore in vain.