Sonnet on the Book of Mormon
By Clinton F. Larson
(This future noted Mormon poet was in 1940 a
missionary serving in the New England Mission)
The ruins murmur on unceasingly
To testify there was another day …
This western hemisphere has known a glory
That we know little of, except to say:
‘I felt their grandeur in the backward look …’
They had a scripture from Omnipotence:
So from the dust, from them to us, the book
Came down, spanning timeless decadence
To tell us of the nations and the forms
That have gone down beneath consuming time;
What temporal monument, against the storms,
Can hold steadfastly in artistic rhyme?
But Mayan ruins speak in scriptural flow
With far more eloquence than forms can know.
(1940)
A young man, honing his craft. He got better. The first line is a nice image, and I also like the line
Outside of that, I’m not impressed. You should see some of my poetry from when I was that age. All full of Tolkien references, and intense naval gazing. I gave up poetry, perhaps just in time.
Maybe if Bro. Larson had been in Portsmouth or Newport he could have engaged in some naval gazing himself, but I’m still mystified about what navy ever fell beneath a Utah boy’s gaze.
Mark, Ouch! Belly button lint obscured the “e” and made it look like an “a!” The grocery store had it wrong, as well.
I hate when that happens!