Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
VI. ConsolationBlind
Israel Zangwill (18641926)L
Run ’round their college lawn,
Playing such games of buff
Over its dappled grass!
Girls in blue pinafores,
Turning their skipping ropes!
Theirs to inhabit is!
Sweet scent of grass and bloom,
Playmates’ glad symphony.
Cool touch of western wind,
Sunshine’s divine caress.
How should they know or feel
They are in darkness?
If a Redeemer came,
Laid fingers on their eyes—
One touch—and what a world
New born in loveliness!
Hulls of white cloud adrift,
Ivy-grown college walls,
Shining loved faces!
Ours to inhabit is!
One touch, and what a strange
Glory might burst on us!
What a hid universe!
Blindly, upon the verge
Of an Apocalypse?