John Bannister Tabb Poems

As still upon the prophet shone
A light, when God himself was gone,
So lives, unbanished from thine eyes,
The splendor of thy native skies.
...

Mute oracle of meek humanity,
Save to its sense of blindness wholly blind,
That drifting wide in misery, to find
...

Where Youth and Laughter lingered long
To quaff delight, with wanton song
And warm caress,
Now Time and Silence strive amain
...

Behold the reed of scorn,
Like Aaron's rod,
Hath blossomed to adorn
The risen God.


And she, the broken bloom
That balmed His feet,
Is first ...
...

Dead fifty years? No so,
Nay, fifty years ago
Death, obloquy and spite,
...

Long I waited, wondering
How, so near my heart,
Love another life could bring,
Made of mine a part,
...

I only
, its mother, have known
The life that is taken away.
As the grape and the vine have we grown
...

Father;-for loftier titles cannot hide
The tenderness of thy paternity
From eyes that turn with filial gaze to thee-
...

O why should Old Lang Sign
A compliment to me
(If it indeed is mine),
And filch my final b?
...

Friend forever in the light
Cleaving to my side,
Harbinger of endless night
That must soon betide;
...