I still listen to cassettes on my Walkman-
so wake me up when the next big thing develops…
I hope you like this poem.
(You can download it for free.)
I dreamed I met a Galilean
A most amazing man
He had that look you very rarely find –
The haunting hunted kind.
I asked him
To say what had happened
How it all began
I asked again
He never said a word
As if he hadn’t heard…
And next the room was full
Of wild and angry men
They seemed to hate this man
They fell on him and then – disappeared again
Then I saw thousands of millions
Crying for this man
And then I heard them mentioning my name –
and leaving me the blame…
WHEN I survey the bright
Celestial sphere;
So rich with jewels hung, that Night
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear:
My soul her wings doth spread
And heavenward flies,
Th’ Almighty’s mysteries to read
In the large volumes of the skies.
For the bright firmament
Shoots forth no flame
So silent, but is eloquent
In speaking the Creator’s name.
No unregarded star
Contracts its light
Into so small a character,
Removed far from our human sight,
But if we steadfast look
We shall discern
In it, as in some holy book,
How man may heavenly knowledge learn.
It tells the conqueror
That far-stretch’d power,
Which his proud dangers traffic for,
Is but the triumph of an hour:
That from the farthest North,
Some nation may,
Yet undiscover’d, issue forth,
And o’er his new-got conquest sway:
Some nation yet shut in
With hills of ice
May be let out to scourge his sin,
Till they shall equal him in vice.
And then they likewise shall
Their ruin have;
For as yourselves your empires fall,
And every kingdom hath a grave.
Thus those celestial fires,
Though seeming mute,
The fallacy of our desires
And all the pride of life confute:–
For they have watch’d since first
The World had birth:
And found sin in itself accurst,
And nothing permanent on Earth.
Through that pure Virgin-shrine,
That sacred veil drawn o’er thy glorious noon
That men might look and live as glow-worms shine,
And face the moon:
Wise Nicodemus saw such light
As made him know his God by night.
Most blest believer he!
Who in that land of darkness and blind eyes
Thy long expected healing wings could see,
When thou didst rise,
And what can never more be done,
Did at mid-night speak with the Sun!
O who will tell me, where
He found thee at that dead and silent hour!
What hallowed solitary ground did bear
So rare a flower,
Within whose sacred leaves did lie
The fullness of the Deity.
No mercy-seat of gold,
No dead and dusty Cherub, nor carved stone,
But his own living works did my Lord hold
And lodge alone;
Where trees and herbs did watch and peep
And wonder, while the Jews did sleep.
Dear night! this world’s defeat;
The stop to busy fools; care’s check and curb;
The day of Spirits; my soul’s calm retreat
Which none disturb!
Christ’s progress, and his prayer time;
The hours to which high Heaven doth chime.
God’s silent, searching flight:
When my Lord’s head is filled with dew, and all
His locks are wet with the clear drops of night;
His still, soft call;
His knocking time; the soul’s dumb watch,
When Spirits their fair kindred catch.
Were all my loud, evil days
Calm and unhaunted as is thy dark Tent,
Whose peace but by some Angel’s wing or voice
Is seldom rent;
Then I in Heaven all the long year
Would keep, and never wander here.
But living where the sun
Doth all things wake, and where all mix and tire
Themselves and others, I consent and run
To every mire,
And by this world’s ill-guiding light,
Err more than I can do by night.
There is in God (some say)
A deep, but dazzling darkness; as men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
See not all clear;
O for that night! where I in him
Might live invisible and dim.
Aerosmith’s lyrics may or may not stand as poetry without electric instruments backing up the words. Here is one of my favorite songs with lyrics and links for your perusal.
The tribute video is interesting in itself.
The brooding notes at the onset of the song remind me of the last lines of Poe’s The City in the Sea:
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave — there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide —
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow —
The hours are breathing faint and low —
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
There are so many diverging sub-texts in this harrowing song. Seismologic/apocalyptic panic is the dominant theme—but one can find Creation vs. the Evolutionary hypothesis (Three million years or just a story), and the apostasy of Israel’s false prophets as mentioned in Isaiah 28:7 & 8 :
“And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:
The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;
They reel while having visions…”
We even catch a bloody glimpse of the Levite’s butchered concubine from Judges.
OK all you armchair theologians: tell me if this song lines up with God’s prophetic Word or not. For years I tried to figure out the lyrics by the way they sounded—but the internet has deprived me of that joy and I now know that in verse 5, “Holy lands are sinking / Bursting through the sky” is not QUITE what Brad W. and Steven T. had written.
The song is full of disturbing imagery nonetheless (just like the Bible).
So sleep well everyone and I’ll see you at the great white throne –
or maybe in the psych ward…
And don’t forget to look for poetry in Rock’n’Roll lyrics
as well as in the Holy Bible...
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