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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  869. The Second Crucifixion

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Richard Le Gallienne. b. 1866

869. The Second Crucifixion

LOUD mockers in the roaring street 
  Say Christ is crucified again: 
Twice pierced His gospel-bearing feet, 
  Twice broken His great heart in vain. 
 
I hear, and to myself I smile,         5
For Christ talks with me all the while. 
 
No angel now to roll the stone 
  From off His unawaking sleep, 
In vain shall Mary watch alone, 
  In vain the soldiers vigil keep.  10
 
Yet while they deem my Lord is dead 
My eyes are on His shining head. 
 
Ah! never more shall Mary hear 
  That voice exceeding sweet and low 
Within the garden calling clear:  15
  Her Lord is gone, and she must go. 
 
Yet all the while my Lord I meet 
In every London lane and street. 
 
Poor Lazarus shall wait in vain, 
  And Bartimæus still go blind;  20
The healing hem shall ne’er again 
  Be touch’d by suffering humankind. 
 
Yet all the while I see them rest, 
The poor and outcast, on His breast. 
 
No more unto the stubborn heart  25
  With gentle knocking shall He plead, 
No more the mystic pity start, 
  For Christ twice dead is dead indeed. 
 
So in the street I hear men say, 
Yet Christ is with me all the day.  30