Tabb Centenary Year II

Five poems by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Faith

In every seed to breathe the flower,
   In every drop of dew
To reverence a cloistered star
   Within the distant blue;
To wait the promise of the bow,
   Despite the cloud between,
Is Faith—the fervid evidence
   Of loveliness unseen.

August 1895 (p. 222, Religion: Doctrine)

Influence

He cannot as he came depart—
   The Wind that woos the Rose;
Her fragrance whispers in his heart
   Wherever hence he goes.

November 1897 (p. 328, Quatrains: Flowers)

All in All

We know Thee, each in part—
   A portion small;
But love Thee, as Thou art—
   The All in all:
For Reason and the rays thereof
Are starlight to the noon of Love.

December 1897 (p. 221, Religion: Doctrine)

Bartimeus to the Bird

Had I no revelation but thy voice,
   No word but thine,
Still would my soul in certitude rejoice
   That love divine
Thy heart, his hidden instrument, employs,
   To waken mine.

November 1898 (p. 42, Nature: Birds)

My Portion

I know not what a day may bring;
For now ’tis sorrow that I sing,
   And now ’tis joy.
In both a father’s hand I see;
For one renews the man in me,
   And one the boy.

September 1909 (p. 146, Life and Death: Joy and Sorrow)

[For “Bartimeus to the Bird” see Mark 10:46-52.]

The references (page number and section) are to The Poetry of Father Tabb, ed. Francis A. Litz, Ph.D. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1928). All of Tabb's poems published here in the Father Tabb Centenary Year were originally published before 1923.

Biblical references link to the New Advent Bible comprising Bishop Challoner's edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible (English) and the Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate (Latin), since they are the versions which Father Tabb would have used as a Catholic.

The year 2009 is the centenary of the death of Rev. John Banister Tabb, November 19, 1909.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 01/11/09 08:36:56 AM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.