Tabb Centenary Year XI

Five lyrics by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Anonymous

Anonymous—nor needs a name
To tell the secret whence the flame,
With light, and warmth, and incense, came
A new creation to proclaim.

So was it when, His labor done,
God saw His work, and smiled thereon:
His glory in the picture shone,
But name upon the canvas none.

1897 (p. 160, Life, Death, and Similar Themes: The World)

Earth’s Tribute

First the grain, and then the blade—
The one destroyed, the other made;
Then stalk and blossom, and again
The gold of newly minted grain.

So life, by death the reaper cast
To earth, again shall rise at last;
For ’tis the service of the sod
To render God the things of God.

April 1892 (p. 159, Life, Death, and Similar Themes: The World)

Influences

Each separate life is fed
From many a fountain-head;
   Tides that we never know
   Into our being flow,
And rays of the remotest star
Converge to make us what we are.

December 1908 (p. 117, Life, Death, and Similar Themes: Life)

Fountain-Heads

Alike from depths of joy and sorrow start
   The rain-drops of the heart;
Alike from sweet and briny waves arise
   The tear-drops of the skies.
And back to earth salt tears and freshening rain
   Alike must flow again.

December 1893 (p. 111, Life, Death, and Similar Themes: Life)

The Astronomer

The little dome that holds the brain,
Whereby he measures from afar
The influence of steadfast star
   Or moving moon and sun—
Both vaster mysteries contain
   Than those he looks upon;
Nay, such the marvel that perchance
The spheres in mute amazement scan,
The while they meet his upward glance,
   The deeper mind of man.

1923 (p. 118, Life, Death, and Similar Themes: Life)

[“Earth’s Tribute”: the last line alludes to the answer given by the Lord Jesus to the Pharisees and Herodians in Matthew 22:15-22.]

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. 02/22/09 02:27:38 PM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.