Explore "In the Wilderness" by Robert Graves on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Christ of His gentleness / Thirsting and hungering, / Walked in the wilderness; / Soft words of grace He spoke / Unto lost desert-folk / That listened wondering. / He heard the bitterns call / From ruined palace-wall, / Answered them brotherly. / He held communion / With the she-pelican / Of lonely piety. / Basilisk, cockatrice, / Flocked to his homilies, / With mail of dread device, / With monstrous barbed slings, / With eager dragon-eyes; / Great rats on leather wings / And poor blind broken things, / Foul in their miseries.
And ever with Him went, / Of all His wanderings / Comrade, with ragged coat, / Gaunt ribs -- poor innocent -- / Bleeding foot, burning throat, / The guileless old scapegoat; / For forty nights and days / Followed in Jesus' ways, / Sure guard behind Him kept, / Tears like a lover wept.