Monday, April 4, 2011

The Look- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I've never been one for poetry. Well, let me rephrase that. I like poems, but when my school requires me to find the rhyme scheme, the alliteration, the consonance, the metaphors, the similes, the type of foot, the type of sonnet, identify the theme, identify the tone and go into depth of the meaning of such-and-such, etc. weeeellll, let's just say I balk at that. (Oh and don't even get me started on the poems that you have to explain but have NO idea what they mean!)

But there are some poems that I enjoy (and by enjoy, I mean I understand, hehe ; ) and the following is one of them:

••••••••••
The Savior looked on Peter.

Ay, no word, no gesture of reproach; the Heavens serene though heavy with armed justice, did not lean their thunders that way: the forsaken Lord looked only, on the traitor.

None record what that look was, none guess; for those who have seen wronged lovers loving through death-pang keen, or pale-cheeked martyrs smiling to a sword, have missed Jehovah at the judgment-call.

And Peter, from the height of blasphemy- "I never knew this man"- did quail and fall, as knowing straight THAT GOD; and turned free and went out speechless from the face of all, and filled the silence, weeping bitterly.
••••••••••

I think this is a poem to which we all can relate, seeing as how at one time or another we've betrayed the King of Kings.