Explore "The Terrible Test" by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Separate, upon the folded page / Of myth or marvel, sad or glad, / The test that gave the Lord to thee, / And thee to us, O Galahad!
"Found pure in deed, and word, and thought," / The creature of our dream and guess, / The vision of the brain thou art, / The eidolon of holiness.
Man with the power of the God, / Man with the weaknesses of men, / Whose lips the Sangreal leaned to feed, / "Whose strength was the strength of ten,"
We read -- and smile; no man thou wast; / No human pulses thine could be; / With downcast eyes we read -- and sigh; / So terrible is purity!
O fairest legend of the years, / With folded wings, go, silently! / O flower of knighthood, yield your place / To One who comes from Galilee!
To wounded feet that shrink and bleed, / But press and climb the narrow way, -- / The same old way our own must step, / Forever, yesterday, to-day.
For soul can be what soul hath been, / And feet can tread where feet have trod. / Enough, to know that once the clay / Hath worn the features of the God.