Jump to content

Page:Poems Odom.djvu/207

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BURIED AT SEA.

[Suggested by the burial, in Galveston Bay, of a woman who died on shipboard of a contagious fever.]

Far back in the ages, dim with dust,We read of the idol gold;And under the sacred roof-tile yetThe story is often toldOf the idol wrought—of the precious ore—And set in the temple fair;When men bowed down to the golden calf,Forgetting that God was there.
But that was ages ago, they say,Before the Redeemer came,When all this beautiful Christian loveWas naught but a smothered flame.When even the wisest, best of men—The truest of all the true—The godlike words of the golden ruleNot one of them even knew.

193