John Bannister Tabb Poems

O pilgrim, ever yearning for the East,
What fate before thee lies?
'The spouse of Night, and, from the wedding feast,
The Morning's sacrifice.'
...

I had no God but these,
The sacerdotal Trees,
And they uplifted me.
...

You look, like Grandpa, very old;
And that is why, no doubt,
Your skin is shrivelled by the cold,
And all your teeth are out.
...

O God, the cleanest offering
Of tainted earth below,
Unblushing to thy feet we bring-
...

Time shut the door, and turned the key;
And here in darkness (woe is me!)
I wait and call in vain:
He will not come again!
...

Out of the dusk a shadow,
Then, a spark;
Out of the cloud a silence,
Then, a lark;
...

A crowing, cuddling little Babe was he,
A child for little children far or near.
When he stood and crowed upon his mother's knee,
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A stranger, to his own
He came; and one alone,
Who knew not sin,
His lowliness believed,
...

Fear not: the planet that bedims
The moon's distorted face,
Itself through cloudless ether swims
The Sea of Space;
...

If what I have sung-
Stirred the heart of a youngster,
'Twill not be in vain
That I rattled my brain.
...