27.12.2010, 17:23
ART AND FAITH.
When first I home return'd, and took my part
Once more in rural duties, I had brought
A memory stored with forms of ancient art,
And faithful visions kept them in my thought ;
Day after day Apollo stretch'd his arm,
And gazed in triumph, o'er our village road ;
While Fancy heard, aloof, the noise of harm,
That reach'd the Python from the Archer-god.
Let me not leave thee, O my Lord, for these,
Nor merge in Art my Christian fealty !
Through all the winsome sculptures of old Greece
Keep Thou an open walk for Thee and me !
No whiteness is like Thine, All-pure and good !
No marble weighs against Thy precious Blood.
When first I home return'd, and took my part
Once more in rural duties, I had brought
A memory stored with forms of ancient art,
And faithful visions kept them in my thought ;
Day after day Apollo stretch'd his arm,
And gazed in triumph, o'er our village road ;
While Fancy heard, aloof, the noise of harm,
That reach'd the Python from the Archer-god.
Let me not leave thee, O my Lord, for these,
Nor merge in Art my Christian fealty !
Through all the winsome sculptures of old Greece
Keep Thou an open walk for Thee and me !
No whiteness is like Thine, All-pure and good !
No marble weighs against Thy precious Blood.