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The Book

By John Greenleaf Whittier

Topics: classic

Gallery of sacred pictures manifold,     A minster rich in holy effigies,     And bearing on entablature and frieze     The hieroglyphic oracles of old.     Along its transept aureoled martyrs sit;     And the low chancel side-lights half acquaint     The eye with shrines of prophet, bard, and saint,     Their age-dimmed tablets traced in doubtful writ!     But only when on form and word obscure     Falls from above the white supernal light     We read the mystic characters aright,     And life informs the silent portraiture,     Until we pause at last, awe-held, before     The One ineffable Face, love, wonder, and adore

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"Gallery of sacred pictures manifold,..."

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Author:John Greenleaf Whittier

"Gallery of sacred pictures manifold,..." by John Greenleaf Whittier

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

John Greenleaf Whittier

About John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) was an American Quaker poet and abolitionist whose poems—including "Snow-Bound" and "Barbara Frietchie"—celebrate New England life and moral courage. He was one of the Fireside Poets and a leading voice against slavery.

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