Poems (Eckley)/The Last Supper

by Sophia May Eckley

THE LAST SUPPER.

 

(Fresco by Leonardo da Vinci, at Milan.)

STAINED and faded fresco,
 Mildewed and cracked by time,
Yet through the mist of ages,
 One face still shines sublime—

It has shone on many a brother
 Now long since dead and gone,
Who here partook his lenten fast—
 That face still shining on.

'Tis the last Holy Supper,
 Divine appointed, blest,
Where earthly appetite is lost
 In sacramental feast.

The shadowy group is passing,
 Fading away and dim,
E'en as those brothers one by one
 Have passed away with time.

But the glory of that face,
 The finger of time has past,
Nor left irreverent impress,
 Where ruin has o'ercast.

And down the dusky cloister,
 When evening shadows fall,
And cloud the faded figures
 Of that fresco on the wall;

Still shines with radiance ever,
 The Saviour's face sublime,
Limned by a wondrous painter,
 Immortalized through time.