Kneeling down, looking upwards towards heaven, this praying angel is a classic depiction of surrender, innocence and virtue. A gentle aura surrounds the angel, the markings on his body showing the passing of time.
Inspirational Poems
The Angel
WHENEVER a good child dies, an angel from heaven comes down to earth and takes the dead child in his arms, spreads out his great white wings, and flies away over all the places the child has loved, and picks quite a handful of flowers, which he carries up to the Almighty, that they may bloom in heaven more brightly than on earth. And the Father presses all the flowers to His heart; but He kisses the flower that pleases Him best, and the flower is then endowed with a voice, and can join in the great chorus of praise!
Hans Christian Andersen. (1805–1875) Tales.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
The Angel of Life
LIFE’S Angel watched a happy child at play,
Wreathing the riches of the blushing May:
His eye was cloudless as the heavens above,
But there was pity in her look of love.
The flowers he gathered bloomed their brief bright hour,
Then rained their petals in a silent shower:
The boy looked up at her with strange surprise,
And sadder grew the pity in her eyes.
By Richard Rowe Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.
In Paradise
“O PITYING angel, pause, and say
To me, new come to Paradise,
How I may drive one pain away
By penitence or sacrifice.
From deeps below of nether Hell
I hear a lost soul’s bitter cry:
Alas! It was through me she fell,—
What price forgetfulness may buy?”
The passing angel paused in flight,
Poised like fair stars which first arise,
And looked on that pale suppliant white,
With piercing pity in his eyes.
“Ah, woe!” he said. “Thy joy and peace
Cannot be bought with prayer or price.
For thee that wail will never cease,
Though thou hast won to Paradise!”
By Arlo Bates, Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
Angels
HOW shall we tell an angel
From another guest?
How, from the common worldly herd,
One of the blest?
Hint of suppressed halo, 5
Rustle of hidden wings,
Wafture of heavenly frankincense,—
Which of these things?
The old Sphinx smiles so subtly:
“I give no golden rule,— 10
Yet would I warn thee, World: treat well
Whom thou call’st fool.”
By Gertrude Hall, Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
A Flight from Glory
ONCE, from the parapet of gems and glow,
An Angel said, “O God, the heart grows cold
On these eternal battlements of gold,
Where all is pure, but cold as virgin snow.
Here sobs are never heard; no salt tears flow;
Here there are none to help—nor sick nor old;
No wrong to fight, no justice to uphold:
Grant me Thy leave to live man’s life below.”
“And then annihilation?” God replied.
“Yes,” said the Angel, “even that dread price;
For earthly tears are worth eternal night.”
“Then go,” said God.—The Angel opened wide
His dazzling wings, gazed back on Heaven thrice,
And plunged for ever from the walls of Light.
Eugene Lee-Hamilton (b. 1845), Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.