Poems (Dorr)/In Marble Prayer
IN MARBLE PRAYER
(CANTERBURY, 1891)
So still, so still they lie As centuries pass by,Their pale hands folded in imploring prayer; They never lift their eyes In sudden, sweet surprise;The wandering winds stir not their heavy hair; Forth from their close-sealed lips Nor moan, nor laughter, slips,Nor lightest sigh to wake the entrancèd air!
Yet evermore they pray! We creatures of a dayLive, love, and vanish from the gaze of men; Nations arise and fall; Oblivion's heavy pallHides kings and princes from all human ken, While these in marble state, From age to age awaitThe rolling thunder of the last amen!
Not in dim crypts alone, Or aisles of fretted stone,Where high cathedral altars gleam afar; And the red light streams down On mitre and on crown, Till each proud jewel blazes like a star; But where the tall grass waves O'er long-forgotten graves,Their silent worship no rude sounds can mar!
Dost Thou not hear and heed? O, in Earth's utmost needWilt Thou not hearken, Thou who didst create? Not for themselves they pray Whose woes have passed for aye;For us, for us, before Thy throne they wait! Thou Sovereign Lord of All, On whom they mutely call,Hear Thou and answer from thine high estate!