Evening Prayer
The bell rings, and the charming ivy climbs
About the walls of that old chapel, where
I spent so many wonder-studded hours,
And yet I will not join my fellows there.
I dreamed I saw a corpse behind the pews
Ignored and stinking. Eucharist went on
And then I saw another, and I knew
They knew, and it was God they had undone.
And they have found me out in every place
Where I could rest a while, and I was weary
Of the whole tale, and climbed into a cave
Where there was much of me I could not carry.
And yet I stand, and wish I could go in
And kneel amid the symbols as before
And hear the music unbefouled by sin
And have the skin, and not betray the core.
The bell rings, and the charming ivy climbs
About the walls of that old chapel, where
I spent so many wonder-studded hours,
And yet I will not join my fellows there.
I dreamed I saw a corpse behind the pews
Ignored and stinking. Eucharist went on
And then I saw another, and I knew
They knew, and it was God they had undone.
And they have found me out in every place
Where I could rest a while, and I was weary
Of the whole tale, and climbed into a cave
Where there was much of me I could not carry.
And yet I stand, and wish I could go in
And kneel amid the symbols as before
And hear the music unbefouled by sin
And have the skin, and not betray the core.