Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. From "Drake" again this ringing word: "His face was like a king's face as he spake, For sorrows that strike deep reveal the deep; And through the gateways of a ragged wound Sometimes a God will drive his chariot wheels From some deep heaven within the hearts of men!" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. CHRISTHOOD AND ITS CALVARY From childhood to manhood through Christhood to Godhood is a progression that Noyes sees clearly and makes us see as clearly. Somehow Christ is very real to Noyes. He is not a historical character far off. He is the Christ of here and now; the Christ that meets our every need; as real as a dearly beloved friend next door to us. No poet sees the Christ more clearly. First he caught the meanings of Christ's gospel of new birth. He was not confused on that. He knows: "The task is hard to learn While all the songs of Spring return Along the blood and sing. "Yet hear--from her deep skies, How Art, for all your pain, still cries, _Ye must be born again_!" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. And who could put his worship more beautifully than the poet does in "The Symbolist"? "Help me to seek that unknown land! I kneel before the shrine. Help me to feel the hidden hand That ever holdeth mine. "I kneel before the Word, I kneel Before the Cross of flame. I cry, as through the gloom I steal, The glory of the Name." Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. Christ's face, and his life experiences, here and there slip out of the lines of this English poet with an insistence that cannot but win the heart of the world, especially the heart of the Christian. Here and there in the most unexpected places his living presence stands before you, with, to use another of the poet's own lines, "Words that would make the dead arise," as in "Vicisti, Galilee": "Poor, scornful Lilliputian souls, And are ye still too proud To risk your little aureoles By kneeling with the crowd? * * * * * "And while ye scoff, on every side Great hints of Him go by,--Souls that are hourly crucified On some new Calvary!" * * * * * "In flower and dust, in chaff and grain, He binds Himself and dies! We live by His eternal pain, His hourly sacrifice." * * * * * "And while ye scoff from shore to shore From sea to moaning sea, 'Eloi, eloi,' goes up once more, 'Lama sabachthani!' The heavens are like a scroll unfurled, The writing flames above-- This is the King of all the World Upon His Cross of Love!" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.