Who Shall Escape the Lord?

THE SECRET FLAME

WHO SHALL ESCAPE THE LORD?

If he be agile and alert

A man may baffle many a hurt,

If he be merry and aware

A man shall mock at many a snare.

But though he guard his continence

From siege without and hot offense,

Though he be shrewd to save his skin,

How shall he quit the foe within?

For no more shall escape a man

From this assault than fly he can

By any sudden turn or twist

The bright blood pounding in his wrist.

He still shall carry on his flight,

Unrecognized, his piteous plight

Within the core, without a name,

The ineradicable flame.

Structure

18 lines · 5 stanzas