Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Religious Poems

The Book

GALLERY of sacred pictures manifold,

A minster rich in holy effigies,

And bearing on entablature and frieze

The hieroglyphic oracles of old.

Along its transept aureoled martyrs sit;

And the low chancel side-lights half acquaint

The eye with shrines of prophet, bard, and saint,

Their age-dimmed tablets traced in doubtful writ!

But only when on form and word obscure

Falls from above the white supernal light

We read the mystic characters aright,

And life informs the silent portraiture,

Until we pause at last, awe-held, before

The One ineffable Face, love, wonder, and adore.

1881.