Classic Poem

Herod the King came sounding through
Capernaum gate with a revelling crew;
Beyond his garden of sycophants,
He saw but a thousand crawling ants.

Judas the Mammonite masked his heart
With a crooked smile in Capernaum mart,—
And up the street as he went his way,
He saw but a thousand masks of clay.

John the Dreamer walked up and down
The streets of old Capernaum town;
And naught he saw with his raptured eye
But a thousand phantoms hurrying by.

Soft as snow to Capernaum drew
Jesus the Christ, and no man knew.
He saw as in a painted scroll
The ant, the mask, and the phantom soul.

But in and over and back of them all,
He saw, by old Capernaum wall,
The angel of each to whom was given
To stand before their God in Heaven.