Tabb Centenary Year XLVIII

Five lyrics by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Transfigured

Throughout the livelong summer day
The leaf and twinborn shadow play
   Till leaf to shadow fade;
Then, hidden for a season brief,
They dream, till shadow turn to leaf
   As leaf was turned to shade.

November 1893 (p. 113, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Life)

Love Immortal

The soul that sees no hell below,
   No heaven above,
All other mysteries may know,
   But never love.

If from the prison-walls of time
   No life may fly,
Then love and innocence and crime
   Alike must die.

1910 (p. 137, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Love)

Survival

The tempest past—
A home in ruin laid;
But lo! where last
The little children played
At hide-and-seek,
A footprint small
Pleads silently,
As if afraid to speak.
“Behold in me
A memory,
The least and last of all!”

November 1909 (p. 156,Life, Death and Similar Themes: Memory)

Limitation

Breathe above me or below;
Never canst thou farther go
Than the spirit’s octave-span,
Harmonizing God and Man.

Thus within the iris-bound,
Light a prisoner is found;
Thus within my soul I see
Life in time’s captivity.

November 1893 (p. 109, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Life)

An Interpreter

What, O Eternity,
   Is time to thee?—
What to the boundless All
   My portion small?

Lift up thine eyes, my soul!
Against the tidal roll
   Stands many a stone,
   Whereon the breakers thrown
Are dashed to spray;
   Else were the ocean dumb.

So, in the way
   Of tides eternal, thou
   Abidest now;
And God himself doth come
   A suppliant to thee,
   Love’s prisoned thought to free.

1902 (p. 142, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Love)

[“Survival”: this poem was the last of Father Tabb's poetry published during his lifetime. “Limitation”: Father Tabb’s niece, Jennie Masters Tabb, quotes (p. 81) her uncle as having said of this poem, “The best of my work, according to my judgment”; she gives no indication, however, of when he made that pronouncement.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 09/06/09 08:38:57 PM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.