Observations placeholder
Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry - Sandalphon
Identifier
011014
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – from The Poems of Longfellow
from Sandalphon
But serene in the rapturous throng
Unmoved by the rush of the song
With eyes unimpassioned and slow
Among the dead angels, the deathless
Sandalphon stands listening, breathless
To sounds that ascend from below
From the spirits on earth that adore
From the souls that entreat and implore
In the fervour and passion of prayer
From the hearts that are broken with losses
And weary with dragging crosses
Too heavy for mortal to bear
And he gathers the prayers as he stands
And they change into flowers in his hands
Into garlands of purple and red
And beneath the great arch of the portal
Through the streets of the City Immortal
Is wafted the fragrance they shed
It is but a legend, I know -
A fable, a phantom, a show
Of the ancient Rabbinical lore;
Yet the old medieval tradition
The beautiful, strange superstition
But haunts me and holds me the more