Volume 3 — ON THE KNEELING FIGURE IN MALVERN PRIORY.
Reading edition
By CHARLES GRINDROD.
[The old Renaissance figure (of a lady) is placed just outside the altar rail; looking northward, with one side of the face turned to the west, the other to the altar. Although kneeling, it has at a little distance the appearance of standing, owing to its peculiar erectness from the knees upward. The face is remarkable for the singular smile, half cynical, half spiritual (especially in the tightly compressed lips), which gives an expression of living interest.]
Tenant of stone! here still thou worshippest, Smiling the prayer that on thy lips has hung While ages traveled. Still thou kneel’st among The quiet tombs. Impassioned joy or spleen Moves not thy face—in part to heaven addressed, In part to the green hills thy feet have clomb. Image of what is past, and what shall come! Silent as death, which thou embodiest Far more than life. Mute sentry! stood between The crumbled mortal and ascended sprite! Has thou no sense for what is, or has been? Can nothing break thy sepulchre of rest? Once thy heart throbbed with human motion keen, Thy folded hands with others warmly pressed, Thy close-sealed lips have sweetly spoke or sung— Now an eternity is not more dumb! The organ peels around thee its deep notes; But thou art deaf to music’s noblest strains. A glory of rich hues about thee floats; Thou car’st not for the splendor of bright panes. What fateful storms and changes hast thou seen! How little dost thou heed the mad world’s hum! Our childhood knew thee as doth now our age— Time stirs not thee. Where art thou all this space, The part of thee which not in stone remains, While wondering centuries roll past thy place? They change and cease: the whole world turns a page— But thou still wear’st that smile upon thy face.
