Tabb Centenary Year XXXVII

Five lyrics by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Reflection

Where closing water-lilies are
I’ve sometimes seen the Evening Star,
   A-blossom just below,
And I have wondered if there be
No pools in heaven where souls may see
   How water-lilies grow.

1902 (p. 18, Nature: Flowers)

Beyond

The river to the sea,
In language of the land,
Interpreter would be
Of life beyond the strand;
Of billowy heights that never fall
When winds have gone their way,
Of waving forests, dark and tall,
Of flocks, and herds, and fertile vales,
Of warbling birds and blossom-spray
That scents the wandering gales.
Alas! ’tis all a mystery!
She does not understand.

(p. 70, Nature: The Sea)

Life’s Gulf Stream

Stars that in the darkness bloom
Wither in the light;
Dreams begotten of the gloom,
Take their morning flight.

And, the gleam of fancy gone,
From the current of the dawn
Tidal memories are drawn
To the coast of Night.

1910 (p. 77, Nature: Day and Night)

Sympathy

Lo! of gladness or regret
Teardrops in the violet
Weeping till her leaves are wet,
Dewdrops in mine eyes beget!

Mirrored in each lucid sphere,
Highest heaven to earth is near;
Closer sympathies are here
’Twixt the dewdrop and the tear.

April 1894 (p. 150, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Life)

Sunset at Sea

Lo, where he sinks from sight,
The day forgets her light;
   Nor breathes a wave
To break the silence sweet
Where sky and ocean meet
   Above his grave.

February 1892 (p. 64, Nature: The Sea)

[“Reflection”: the Evening Star is the planet Venus, so called during the periods when it is brightest just after sunset. “Beyond”: in the last line, “She” refers to the sea. “Life’s Gulf Stream”: the Gulf Stream is a powerful, warm current in the Atlantic Ocean, running along the Eastern seaboard of North America.]

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. 06/21/09 06:28:01 PM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.