Tabb Centenary Year LX

Five poems by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Formation

Whate’er we love becomes of us a part;
   The centre of all tributary powers—
Our life is fed from Nature’s throbbing heart,
   And of her best the fibred growth is ours.

1894 (p. 361, Quatrains: Miscellaneous)

My Angel

O little child, that once was I,
   And still in part must be,
When other children pass me by,
   Again thy face I see.

Where art thou? Can the Innocence
   That here no more remains,
Forget, though early banished hence,
   What memory retains?

Alas! and could’st thou look upon
   The features that were thine,
To see of tender graces none
   Abiding now in mine,

Thy heart compassionate would plead,
   And, haply, not in vain,
As Angel Guardian, home to lead
   The wanderer again.

October 1905 (p. 255, Himself and Others)

A Heart-Cry

Come back to me! but not as now ye are,
   O friends afar!
For it were pain,
More keen than parting, so to meet again,
With all the change that time, perchance, hath wrought
   In form and thought,
To make us strangers in each other’s eyes,
   Save for long-cloistered sympathies.

1902 (p. 270, Himself and Others)

The Shadow

O shadow, in thy fleeting form I see
The friend of fortune that once clung to me.
In flattering light, thy constancy is shown;
In darkness, thou wilt leave me all alone.

December 1885 (p. 352, Quatrains: Personal)

Childhood

Old Sorrow I shall meet again,
   And Joy, perchance—but never, never,
Happy Childhood, shall we twain
   See each other’s face forever!

And yet I would not call thee back,
   Dear Childhood, lest the sight of me,
Thine old companion, on the rack
   Of Age, should sadden even thee.

1894 (p. 172, Life, Death and Similar Themes: Childhood)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 11/08/09 10:22:38 AM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.