Poems (Blake)/The Christian Martyr

by Mary Elizabeth Blake

THE CHRISTIAN MARTYR.

(FROM THE PICTURE OF PAUL DELAROCHE.)

I.

A midnight waste of waters dark and chill, With one pale star-beam falling there to rest,A white-robed martyr floating calm and still, As moves the tide above the silent breast;

A cruel cord that holds the lifeless wrist, A floating robe upon the water spread,A tender cheek that loving lips have kissed, And uncoiled hair weighed backward from the head;

And a sweet face, so full of heavenly love As one whom God had saved from dying woe,—One glory rests the quiet brow above, Another crowns the silent heart below.

II.

What saddening tale of human pride or wrong Breaks the dim calm that broods above the sea?What human passions, pitiless and strong, Thus grasped the weapons of eternity?

Or what dark pagan, maddened by the strength That marked her faith as born of heaven's high throne,Cast her beyond him by a full arm's length, And left her with the wave and night alone?

I may not say;—enough for me to know Heaven sent its peace to ease her passing pain,Till her rapt soul, uplifted, learned to know The waking pulse of joy and life again.

For in the pictured face, though cold and still, We read to-day, with hushed and reverent breath,Of weakness strengthened by the Father's will, And victory gathered from the strife of death;

Of the great triumph-smile of spirits riven From the strong ties of natures frail and fond,Who, daring all of life for God and heaven, Float out through darkness to the light beyond.

III.

Thus when I raise mine eyes and look above To the white face that floats the midnight sea,A far-off voice of majesty and love Thus reads my picture's lesson unto me:

O thou of little strength and lesser faith, When pain or sorrow shake thy wonted calm,See how, at last, beyond life's passing scathe, God's crown of glory hides the martyr's palm.