The Sacred Shrines of Dwarka

Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)



Such was the faith of old—obscure and vast,
And offering human triumphs unto heaven.
Then rose the stately temple, rich with spoils
Won from the vanquished nations. There the god
Stood visible in golden pageantry;
And pride, pomp, power were holy attributes.
A humbler creed has wandered o’er the earth,
Known, as a quiet scarce-seen stream is known,
But by the greener growth upon its banks.
It is our Christian worship, which doth lead
The heart of man to Heaven by love alone.
Plant ye the Cross then by these ancient shrines:
Far let it spread its genial influence—
Peace for its shadow—Hope for its sunshine.

The introduction of Christian Missionaries was always advocated by Sir Alexander Johnston, while President of His Majesty's Council in Ceylon. A leading Brahmin mentioned, while in conversation with him, the following striking fact. "For our toleration," said he, "I refer to the little Roman Catholic chapel of St. Francis, which had for the last three hundred years stood under a banyan tree, close by the great Hindoo temple. Not one of the innumerable devotees who resort thither on pilgrimages had ever molested the shrine of another faith."
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Submitted by Madeleine Quinn on February 29, 2020

Modified on March 21, 2023

59 sec read
12

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXXXXXAXXAXXX X
Characters 1,186
Words 197
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 14, 1

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet. Born 14th August 1802 at 25 Hans Place, Chelsea, she lived through the most productive period of her life nearby, at No.22. A precocious child with a natural gift for poetry, she was driven by the financial needs of her family to become a professional writer and thus a target for malicious gossip (although her three children by William Jerdan were successfully hidden from the public). In 1838, she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast, whence she travelled, only to die a few months later (15th October) of a fatal heart condition. Behind her post-Romantic style of sentimentality lie preoccupations with art, decay and loss that give her poetry its characteristic intensity and in this vein she attempted to reinterpret some of the great male texts from a woman’s perspective. Her originality rapidly led to her being one of the most read authors of her day and her influence, commencing with Tennyson in England and Poe in America, was long-lasting. However, Victorian attitudes led to her poetry being misrepresented and she became excluded from the canon of English literature, where she belongs. more…

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