ASCENSION DAY
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That worthy Yankee millionaire,
And wealthy nephews, young and fair,
The pleasing Crawfords ! Lost ! Lost! Lost ! %
“The Holy Spirit, friend! beware !”
Ah ! ten days yet to Pentecost ! The reader
Come that, I promise you—-but stay ! may hope.
At-present ’tis Ascension Day !
At least your faith should be content. Summary.
I quarrel not with this event. Reader os:
The supernatural element? chapel. °
I deny nothing—at the term
It is just Nothing I affirm.
The fool (with whom is wisdom, deem
The Scriptures—rightly !) in his heart
Saith (silent, to himself, apart)
This secret: “ obs Pe? 9
See the good Psalm! And thus, my friend !
My diatribes approach the end
And find us hardly quarrelling.
And yet—you seem not satisfiedP
The literal mistranslated thing ©
Must not by sinners be denied.
Go to your Chapel then to pray !
(I promise Mr. Chesterton %
Before the Muse and I have done
A grand ap-pre-ci-a-ti-on .
Of Brixton on Ascension Day.)
He’s gone—his belly filled enough !
Future plans of
This Robert-Browning-manqué stuff ! poet. Jesus
’Twill serve—Mercutio’s scratch !—to show dismissed with
a jest.
Where God and I are disagreed.
There! I have let my feelings go
This once. Again? I deem not so.
Once for my fellow-creature’s need !
The rest of life, for self-control,®!
For liberation of the soul! ®
This once, the truth! In future, best
Dismissing Jesus with a jest.
Ah! Christ ascends?* Ascension day? The Jest.
Old wonders bear the bell ®! away?
Santos-Dumont, though! Who can say?