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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

False Prophets

George MacDonald

Would-be prophets tell us
We shall not re-know
Them that walked our fellows
In the ways below!

Smoking, smouldering Tophets
Steaming hopeless plaints!
Dreary, mole-eyed prophets!
Mean, skin-pledging saints!

Knowing not the Father
What their prophecies!
Grapes of such none gather,
Only thorns and lies.

Loving thus the brother,
How the Father tell?
Go without each other
To your heavenly hell!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Poetical Works of George MacDonald | 1893
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