Allen Ansell

Alas ! I have lost my God,
My beautiful God Apollo.
Wherever his footsteps trod
My feet were wont to follow.

But Oh ! it fell out one day
My soul was so heavy with weeping,
That I laid me down by the way ;
And he left me while I was sleeping.

And my soul awoke in the night,
And I bowed my ear for his fluting,
And I heard but the breath of the flight
Of wings and the night-birds hooting.

And night drank all her cup,
And I went to the shrine in the hollow,
And the voice of my cry went up :
' Apollo ! Apollo ! Apollo ! '

But he never came to the gate,
And the sun was hid in a mist,
And there came one walking late,
And I knew it was Christ,

He took my soul and bound it
With cords of iron wire,
Seven times round He wound it
With the cords of my desire.


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