St. Alexis, Patron of Beggars

Joyce Kilmer 1886 (New Brunswick) – 1918 (Seringes-et-Nesles)



We who beg for bread as we daily tread
 Country lane and city street,
Let us kneel and pray on the broad highway
 To the saint with the vagrant feet.
Our altar light is a buttercup bright,
 And our shrine is a bank of sod,
But still we share St. Alexis' care,
 The Vagabond of God.

They gave him a home in purple Rome
 And a princess for his bride,
But he rowed away on his wedding day
 Down the Tiber's rushing tide.
And he came to land on the Asian strand
 Where the heathen people dwell;
As a beggar he strayed and he preached and prayed
 And he saved their souls from hell.

Bowed with years and pain he came back again
 To his father's dwelling place.
There was none to see who this tramp might be,
 For they knew not his bearded face.
But his father said, "Give him drink and bread
 And a couch underneath the stair."
So Alexis crept to his hole and slept.
 But he might not linger there.

For when night came down on the seven-hilled town,
 And the emperor hurried in,
Saying, "Lo, I hear that a saint is near
 Who will cleanse us of our sin,"
Then they looked in vain where the saint had lain,
 For his soul had fled afar,
From his fleshly home he had gone to roam
 Where the gold-paved highways are.

We who beg for bread as we daily tread
 Country lane and city street,
Let us kneel and pray on the broad highway
 To the saint with the vagrant feet.
Our altar light is a buttercup bright,
 And our shrine is a bank of sod,
But still we share St. Alexis' care,
 The Vagabond of God!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 10, 2023

1:28 min read
48

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBDEFE ghchxixi xjxjafxf xkxkxlgl ABCBDEFE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,461
Words 294
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

Joyce Kilmer

Joyce Kilmer was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees", which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914. more…

All Joyce Kilmer poems | Joyce Kilmer Books

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