Poems (Tynan)/Of the True Marriage

by Katharine Tynan

OF THE TRUE MARRIAGE

Unto His servant on a day
The Lord revealed His hidden way.

He said: "Within this city great,
 Where sin still slays the Lamb of God,
What dost thou think I contemplate
 For comfort when I look abroad?"
His servant answered: "Yonder church
Crowded at Mass-time to the porch."

The Lord replied: "Not so"; and then,
 His servant guessed to make Him glad
The priest where he sat shriving men;
 The wounded healed; the orphan clad;
The widow's tears wiped off; the poor
Fed from another's little store.

And then he guessed the saint who died
 Last night; Fra Leo, vigil-pale,
Painting the wings of Heaven; Christ's bride
 New-wed, beneath her shadowy veil;
The gray cross in the market-place
With children playing at its base.

And many things of earth and heaven:
 The Convent garden and the doves;
The western sky aflame at even;
 The mountains and the orange groves;
The sea that moaned alway and prayed:
And yet the Lord God shook His head.

He said: "Lo, in thy city I see
 A wife and husband, full of love,
Whose lives in loving harmony
 Are set all death and change above.
I see: and leaning from my place,
I bless them in their hidden grace.

"Whose love and peace and sweet accord
Comfort Me greatly," saith the Lord.