In No Strange Land (The Kingdom Of God) Poem by Francis Thompson

In No Strange Land (The Kingdom Of God)

Rating: 3.0


The kingdom of God is within you

O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
The eagle plunge to find the air-
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumor of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars! -
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places-
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
'Tis ye, 'tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendored thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry- and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry- clinging to Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Michael Walker 07 August 2019

An outstanding religious poem with a modernized theme, 'And lo, Christ walking on the water, Not of Genesareth, but Thames! ' A visionary last couplet.

3 0 Reply
Jane Nevinger 15 January 2018

Beautifuly deep poem that echoes the truth in Thompson’s magnificent and mystical way.

2 0 Reply
Haddon Willmer 15 June 2006

Turn but a stone... compare Matthew 18.10: do not despise one of these little ones...because....

5 0 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success