English poem
Induction
by David Gray (1836–1888)
Enter, scared mortal! and in awe behold The chancel of a dying poet’s mind, Hung round, ah! not adorned, with pictures bold And quaint, but roughly touched for the refined. The chancel, not the charnel house! For I To God have raised a shrine immaculate Therein, whereon His name to glorify, And daily mercies meekly celebrate. So in, scared breather! here no hint of death— Skull or cross-bones suggesting sceptic fear; Yea, rather calmer beauty, purer breath Inhaled from a diviner atmosphere.
More by David Gray
- From my sick-bed gazing upon the west
- From this entangling labyrinthine maze
- Hew Atlas for my monument; upraise
- If it must be; if it must be, O God
- Last Autumn we were four, and travelled far
- Last night, on coughing slightly with sharp pain
- Lying awake at holy eventide
- Now, while the long-delaying ash assumes