ISBN: 9781979625074

Out of the little chapel I burst Into the fresh night-air again. Five minutes full, I waited first In the doorway, to escape the rain That drove in gusts down the common's centre At the e… More...

Out of the little chapel I burst Into the fresh night-air again. Five minutes full, I waited first In the doorway, to escape the rain That drove in gusts down the common's centre At the edge of which the chapel stands, Before I plucked up heart to enter. Heaven knows how many sorts of hands Reached past me, groping for the latch Of the inner door that hung on catch More obstinate the more they fumbled, Till, giving way at last with a scold Of the crazy hinge, in squeezed or tumbled One sheep more to the rest in fold, And left me irresolute, standing sentry In the sheepfold's lath-and-plaster entry, Six feet long by three feet wide, Partitioned off from the vast inside- I blocked up half of it at least. No remedy; the rain kept driving.I Out of the little chapel I burstInto the fresh night-air again.Five minutes full, I waited firstIn the doorway, to escape the rainThat drove in gusts down the common's centreAt the edge of which the chapel stands,Before I plucked up heart to enter.Heaven knows how many sorts of handsReached past me, groping for the latchOf the inner door that hung on catchMore obstinate the more they fumbled,Till, giving way at last with a scoldOf the crazy hinge, in squeezed or tumbledOne sheep more to the rest in fold,And left me irresolute, standing sentryIn the sheepfold's lath-and-plaster entry,Six feet long by three feet wide,Partitioned off from the vast inside-I blocked up half of it at least.No remedy; the rain kept driving.They eyed me much as some wild beast,That congregation, still arriving,Some of them by the main road, whiteA long way past me into the night,Skirting the common, then diverging;Not a few suddenly emergingFrom the common's self thro' the paling-gaps-They house in the gravel-pits perhaps,Where the road stops short with its safeguard borderOf lamps, as tired of such disorder;-But the most turned in yet more abruptlyFrom a certain squalid knot of alleys,Where the town's bad blood once slept corruptly,Which now the little chapel ralliesAnd leads into day again,-its priestlinessLending itself to hide their beastlinessSo cleverly (thanks in part to the mason),And putting so cheery a whitewashed face onThose neophytes too much in lack of it,That, where you cross the common as I did,And meet the party thus presided,Mount Zion with Love-lane at the back of it,They front you as little disconcertedAs, bound for the hills, her fate averted,And her wicked people made to mind him,Lot might have marched with Gomorrah behind him. Trade Books>Trade Paperback>Poetry>Poetry>Poetry, CreateSpace Publishing Core >1<

ISBN: 9781979625074

Paperback, [PU: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform], The first work published by Robert Browning after his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and their departure for Italy, w… More...

Paperback, [PU: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform], The first work published by Robert Browning after his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and their departure for Italy, widely considered to show the influence of his wife's religious beliefs. Published in 1850., Poetry By Individual Poets<

ISBN: 9781979625074

Christmas Eve Christmas-Eve~~Robert-Browning Poetry>Poetry>Poetry Paperback, CreateSpace Publishing

ISBN: 9781979625074

Christmas Eve Christmas-Eve~~Robert-Browning Poetry>Poetry>Poetry Paperback, CreateSpace Publishing