Poetry Archives

Before An Altar

E. J. Pratt

(After Gueudecourt)

Break we the bread once more,
  The cup we pass around—
No, rather let us pour
  This wine upon the ground;

And on the salver lay
  The bread—there to remain.
Perhaps, some other day,
  Shrovetide will come again.

Blurred is the rubric now,
  And shadowy the token,
When blood is on the brow,
  And the frail body broken.

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