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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The Nobler Lesson

Don Marquis

Christ was of virgin birth, and, being slain,
The creedists say, He rose from death again.
Oh, futile age-long talk of death and birth!—
His life, that is the one thing wonder-worth;
Not how He came, but how He lived on earth.
For if gods stoop, and with quaint jugglery
Mock nature’s laws, how shall that profit thee?—
The nobler lesson is that mortals can
Grow godlike through this baffled front of man!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Dreams & Dust | Harper & Brothers, 1915
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