2nd Place - “All Manner of Thing” by Sophie Klomparens

"All Manner of Thing"

Though Love once reared the Hell that broke

Achilles’ rage and weary heart,

And built the horse that breached the walls

And empty temples rent apart—

Though God stretched out His mighty arm

And snatched the Captain’s feeble limb,

Then breathed His vengeance in the Whale

Mad Ahab sought in voyage grim—

Though on the pilgrim’s tired road

The Wife of Bath to travelers told

Of sovereignty and ancient grief

And men that snapped her aged soul—

Though on the rising mountain path

The Poet lost his dearest guide

Who suffered, suffered into truth

He could not know before he died—

Perhaps the hands that built the walls

And tore that city down again

Will dry those eyes that weep for Troy

And cross the souls of soldiers slain.

Perhaps the mind that ever knows

The Crucifix in Ahab’s face

Has sent His Son to calm the waves

And shatter in the Pequod’s place.

In Canterbury’s springtime joy,

Perhaps the Woman’s hearing’s healed,

And like the lone Samaritan,

She tastes the Christ in bread concealed.

Perhaps the poets blessed the road

Which touched the sweetly trickling stream

That flows from Lethe into Hell

To purge the sinners’ waking dream—

Perhaps all Dante’s widening world

Reveals a grace too light and sparse—

And Virgil meets the Love at last

That moves the sun and other stars.

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Sophie is a Stoa alumna who competed for three years with Skagit Defenders Speech & Debate Club and coached for two years. After high school, she attended Hillsdale College and will graduate this May with a B.A. in Latin and English. This fall, she will begin teaching English and Latin.

The views expressed in pieces written by guest authors are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Stoa or the Stoa Alumni Committee.