Frederick William Orde Ward (1843-1922). The Prisoner of Love (1904). I. Christ the Outcast. Alfred H. Miles, ed. 1907. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

The Prisoner of Love (1904).
I. Christ the Outcast

By Frederick William Orde Ward (1843–1922)

	“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”
	St. John i. 11.

WHEN Jesus came to earth below
To make men Godlike too and free,
And gave what Heaven could but bestow
On those blue hills of Galilee;
They thrust Him from them unto death,	5
Even in His own dear Nazareth.

Foxes had holes, the bird its nest,
The leper knew a corner dim
For weary brow and wounded breast—
His earth had nowhere room for Him;	10
Against Him strove the wind and wave,
He found no shelter but the grave.

Yea, though He simply sought men’s good
And lavished on them Living Bread,
Who as our High Priest loved and stood	15
Betwixt the dying and the dead;
Yet they that felt His mercies most,
Drave Him an exile from their coast.

O shall He homeless walk the lands
Which reap the blessings He hath sown,	20
And plead in vain with piercèd hands
For that which always was His own?
Shall He, our Fountain from the first,
Be yet the only one athirst?