from Parabolic

A poem is a painted windowpane!

From the market look into the chapel:

A gloomy and a dark confine.

It seems that way to Mr. Philistine:

Well might he be a bitter apple

And bitter all his life remain.

But just suppose he came inside,

Greeted the holy little shrine

Now colored with such light divine:

Story and ornament both shine,

Meaning and parable allied,

And fit for you, God’s children, to

Rejoice your eyes and be made new!

1815