The Ballad of St. Barbara and other verses/The Convert
For works with similar titles, see The Convert.
THE CONVERT
After one moment when I bowed my headAnd the whole world turned over and came upright,And I came out where the old road shone white,I walked the ways and heard what all men said,Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,Being not unlovable but strange and light;Old riddles and new creeds, not in despiteBut softly, as men smile about the dead.
The sages have a hundred maps to giveThat trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,They rattle reason out through many a sieveThat stores the sand and lets the gold go free:And all these things are less than dust to meBecause my name is Lazarus and I live.