The Respectable Burgher on "The Higher Criticism"
Since Reverend Doctors now declare
That clerks and people must prepare
To doubt if Adam ever were;
To hold the flood a local scare;
To argue, though the stolid stare,
That everything had happened ere
The prophets to its happening sware;
That David was no giant-slayer,
Nor one to call a God-obeyer
In certain details we could spare,
But rather was a debonair
Shrewd bandit, skilled as banjo-player:
That Solomon sang the fleshly Fair,
And gave the Church no thought whate'er;
That Esther with her royal wear,
And Mordecai, the son of Jair,
And Joshua's triumphs, Job's despair,
And Balaam's ass's bitter blare;
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace-flare,
And Daniel and the den affair,
And other stories rich and rare,
Were writ to make old doctrine wear
Something of a romantic air:
That the Nain widow's only heir,
And Lazarus with cadaverous glare
(As done in oils by Piombo's care)
Did not return from Sheol's lair:
That Jael set a fiendish snare,
That Pontius Pilate acted square,
That never a sword cut Malchus' ear
And (but for shame I must forbear)
That -- -- did not reappear! . . .
- Since thus they hint, nor turn a hair,
All churchgoing will I forswear,
And sit on Sundays in my chair,
And read that moderate man Voltaire.
Thomas Hardy
Vous avez aimé cette poésie ? faites la connaître !
D'autres poésies de Thomas Hardy
"Between Us Now"
Between us now and here -
Two thrown together
"How Great My Grief" (Triolet)
How great my grief, my joys how few,
Since first it was...
"I Have Lived With Shades"
I
I have lived with shades so long,
And...
"I Need Not Go"
I need not go
Through sleet and snow
To where I...
"I Said to Love"
I said to Love,
"It is not now as in old days
When...
[Greek Title]
Long have I framed weak phantasies of Thee,
O Willer...
A Broken Appointment
You did not come,
And marching Time drew on, and wore me...
A Christmas Ghost Story.
South of the Line, inland from far Durban,
A mouldering...
A Christmas Ghost-Story
South of the Line, inland from far Durban,
A mouldering...
A Commonplace Day
The day is turning ghost,
And scuttles from the kalendar...
Précédentes poésies
Winds of May
Winds of May, that dance on the sea,
Dancing a...
Who Goes Amid the Green Wood
Who goes amid the green wood
With springtide all adorning...
When the Shy Star Goes Forth in Heaven
When the shy star goes forth in heaven
All maidenly,...
What Counsel Has the Hooded Moon
What counsel has the hooded moon
Put in thy heart, my...
Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba
I heard their young hearts crying
Loveward above the...
