Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4395, 3 February 1883, Page 1

Select Poetry.

THE CHURCH PORCHES,,.

i. Sister, first shake we off the dnsfc we have Upon our feet, lest it defile the stones Inscriptnred, covering tneir sacred bones Who lie in the aisles which keep the,names .they, gave, : Their trust abiding round them in the grave:— Whom painters paint with silent orißons, And to whom sculptors pray iv stone and bronze; Their voices echo still" like a spent wave, Without here, the chnrch bells are but atone, And on thegoethic church-door this hot noon Lays all its heavy sunshine here without; But having, entered in, wo shall find there Silouce, and lighted tapers, and deep prayer, And faces of crowned angels all about. 11. Sister, arise ; we have no more to sing, • Or say. The priest abideth as is meet' To minister; Rise rip ont of thy seat.; Though peradvetiture 'tis an irksome thing To cross again the threshold of a king ■ Where his doors stand against the evil ■ .street, And let each step increase upon our feet The dußt we shook from them at entering Must we of very sooth go hence in the air, Whose heat outside makes-mist that can I be seen, , Is very clear and cool wliere we have been, The priest abideth ministering. Lo! •-' | As ho. for servicej why not we for prayer ? It is so bidden. Sister, let us go. • _ ' Dante Rossrtti.