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Title: In Chartres Cathedral
Author: Rennell Rodd [
More Titles by Rodd]
Through yonder windows stained and old
Four level rays of red and gold
Strike down the twilight dim,
Four lifted heads are aureoled
Of the sculptured cherubim,
And soft like sounds on faint winds blown
Of voices dying far away,
The organ's dreamy undertone,
The murmur while they pray;
And I sit here alone alone
And have no word to say;
Cling closer shadows, darker yet,
And heart be happy to forget.
And now, the mystic silence--and they kneel
A young priest lifts a star of gold,--
And then the sudden organ peal!
Ave and Ave! and the music rolled
Along the carven wonder of the choir
Thrilled canopy and spire,
Up till the echoes mingled with the song;
And now a boy's flute note that rings
Shrill sweet and long,
Ave and Ave, louder and more loud
Rises the strain he sings,
Upon the angel's wings!
Right up to God!
And you that sit there in the lowliest place,
With lips that hardly dare to move,
You with the old sad furrowed face
Dream on your dream of love!
For you, glide down the music's swell
The folding arms of peace,
For me wild thoughts, I dare not tell
Desires that never cease.
For you the calm, the angel's breast
Whose dim foreknowledge is at rest;
For me the beat of broken wings
The old unanswered questionings.
[The end]
Rennell Rodd's poem: In Chartres Cathedral
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