I cry, as through the gloom I steal,
The glory of the Name."
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
Christ's face, and his life experiences, here and there slip out of the
lines of this English poet with an insistence that cannot but win the
heart of the world, especially the heart of the Christian. Here and
there in the most unexpected places his living presence stands before
you, with, to use another of the poet's own lines, "Words that would
make the dead arise," as in "Vicisti, Galilee":
"Poor, scornful Lilliputian souls,
And are ye still too proud
To risk your little aureoles
By kneeling with the crowd?
* * * * *
"And while ye scoff, on every side
Great hints of Him go by,--Souls
that are hourly crucified
On some new Calvary!"
* * * * *
"In flower and dust, in chaff and grain,
He binds Himself and dies!
We live by His eternal pain,
His hourly sacrifice."
* * * * *
"And while ye scoff from shore to shore
From sea to moaning sea,
'Eloi, eloi,' goes up once more,
'Lama sabachthani!'
The heavens are like a scroll unfurled,
The writing flames above--
This is the King of all the World
Upon His Cross of Love!"
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
And there in the very midst of "Drake," that poem of a great sea
fighter, comes this quatrain unexpectedly, showing the Christ always in
the background of the poet's mind.
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