Tabb Centenary Year LXX

Five quatrains by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Imagination

Here fancy far outdoes the deed;
So hath eternity the need
Of telling more than time has taught
To fill the boundaries of thought.

September 1893 (p. 358, Quatrains: Miscellaneous)

Alter Ego

Thou art to me as is the sea
   Unto the shell:
A life whereof I breathe, a love
   Wherein I dwell.

December 1892 (p. 361, Quatrains: Miscellaneous)

Loss

For one extinguished light
Of Love, all heaven is night;
For one frail flower the less,
The world a wilderness.

January 1909 (p. 369, Quatrains: Miscellaneous)

Wrinkles

This, biting Frost—this, branding Sun—
This, Wind or drenching Rain hath done;
Each perfecting the Sculptor’s plan
Upon the godlike image, Man.

November 1903 (p. 370, Quatrains: Miscellaneous)

Beauty

She sleeps, her hiding-place unknown
   To other worshippers,
Till Art, her lover, comes alone
   To press his lips to hers.

1910 (p. 371, Quatrains: Miscellaneous)

[“Alter Ego”: Latin, the other I; “Wrinkles”: the last line alludes to Genesis 1:26.]

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. 12/27/09 08:50:31 AM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.