The old Blandford Church

Poem about Blandford Church written by Dr. John C. McCabe. The church was completed in 1737 but abandoned in 1806. McCabe contrasts the current condition of the rundown edifice with its glorious past when it was a center of worship.

[Recto]

The Old Blandford Church
By Dr John C McCabe.

"Lone relic of the past old mouldering pile,
Where twines the ivy round thy ruins gray,
Where the lone toad sits brooding in thy aisle,
Once trod by 'ladye fayre' and gallant gay!

"How visions rise before the mental eye,
As memory holds communion with the past -
And, as the night winds amid your ruins sigh,
Dim shadows round thy weed-grown path are cast.

"Before my gaze, altar and chancel rise,
The surpliced priest, the mourner bowed in prayer,
Fair worshippers, with heaven - directed eyes,
And manhood's piety and pride are there!

"Knights of the olden time perchance are kneeling,
And choristers pour forth the 'hallowed hymn',
And hark! the organ's solemn strains are pealing,
Like songs of seraphs or rapt cherubim!

"But no! - tis but my fancy, and I gaze
On ruined walls, where creeps the lizard cold;
Or dusky bats beneath the moon's pale rays,
Their solemn, lonely midnight vigils hold.
Their solemn lonely

[Verso]

Yet they are here! - the learned and the prouc,
Genious, and worth, and beauty - They are here,
I stand rebuked amid the slumbering crowd,
Whild time-past voices touch the spirit's ear,

"An humbled man - I feel the mournful truth,
That these sad ruins shadow forth my doom;
Bright hopes must fad, age follows buoyant youth,
And life is but a pathway to the tomb!"

Ink on paper