Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Syria: Gethsemane | | Gethsemane | | John Keble (1792–1866) |
| | (From Monday before Easter)
THERE is a spot within this sacred dale | |
| That felt Thee kneeling,—touched thy prostrate brow: | |
| One Angel knows it. O, might prayer avail | |
| To win that knowledge; sure each holy vow | |
| Less quickly from the unstable soul would fade, | 5 |
| Offered where Christ in agony was laid. | |
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| Might tear of ours once mingle with the blood | |
| That from his aching brow by moonlight fell, | |
| Over the mournful joy our thoughts would brood, | |
| Till they had framed within a guardian spell | 10 |
| To chase repining fancies, as they rise, | |
| Like birds of evil wing, to mar our sacrifice. | |
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| So dreams the heart self-flattering, fondly dreams; | |
| Else wherefore, when the bitter waves o’erflow, | |
| Miss we the light, Gethsemane, that streams | 15 |
| From thy dear name, where in his page of woe | |
| It shines, a pale kind star in winter’s sky? | |
| Who vainly reads it there, in vain had seen him die. | | | | |
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