Tabb Centenary Year XL

Five lyrics by Rev. John B. Tabb.

The Peak

As on some solitary height
Abides, in summer’s fierce despite,
Snow-blossom that no sun can blight,
   No frost can kill;
So, in my soul—all else below
To change succumbing—stands aglow
One wreath of immemorial snow,
   Unscattered still.

January 1892 (p. 154, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Memory)

Memory

I go not to the grave to weep,
But to my heart, wherein I keep
A hidden manna that hath fed
Alike the living and the dead.

We gathered it as, day by day,
It fell from heaven upon our way,
To be, if haply one were gone,
The bread for both to feed upon.

1910 (p. 156, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Sympathy)

Harbors

Full many a noonday nook I know
Where memory is fain to go
And wait in silence till the shade
Of sleep the solitude invade.

For these the resting-places are
Of dreams that, journeying afar,
Pause in their migratory flight
This side the continent of night.

February 1903 (p. 155, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Memory)

Adieu

God speed thee, setting Sun!
Thy beams for me have spun
   Of light to-day
A memory that one
Alone could bring, and none
   Can take away.

June 1895 (p. 155, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Life)

Withdrawn

I miss thee everywhere.
   The places dear to thee,
Familiar shadows wear
   Henceforth for memory.

And where thou hast not been,
   Thou seemest to repose
As near, though never seen,
   As fragrance to the rose.

November 1906 (p. 157, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Love)

[“Memory”: manna was the miraculous food provided by God to the Israelites during their sojourn in the desert; this whole poem alludes to Exodus 16; haply means by chance or accident. “Harbors”: fain means pleased or willing. “Adieu”: from the French, meaning farewell; “God speed” is a wish for success, especially on a journey.]

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. 07/12/09 10:53:39 AM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.