--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Whitney, Orson F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 8 number: 7 published: 1905-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Orson F. Whitney, "Priest and Poet; Response," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 7 (May 1905): 535.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0807unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0807unse start_page: 535 end_page: 535 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0807unse publication_year: 1905 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Priest and Poet; Response PRIEST AND POET. The priest at the foot of the ladder stood weeping, The poet stood smiling at the head of the stair; Said the priest to the singer: "1 pray you to tell me The road that you traveled to get where you r.re. 1 have stood here as herald and watchman and shepherd Since long years before you were born, night and day; There's only one road to the place you are standing, And I know that you never ascended this way." Said the poet, in turn, to the sad, holy preacher: "You are right, I am certain, so rest and be calm; No ladder I climbed, no creed was my teacher, God made me up here; 1 was born where 1 am." —Ben Franklin Bonnell, in National Magazine. RESPONSE. {For the Improvement Era.) BY BISHOP 0. F. WHITNEY. What you say may be true, both of poet and preacher, One at head of the flight, one at foot of the stair. But tell me, which one the more truly God's teacher, Because of his standing down here, or up there? If each does his duty, no more is demanded. Then what cause for weeping, as if weal or woe Were a question of rank, a matter of station, A problem of stature and stilts high or low! Moreover, the poet may preach, and the preacher A poet may be, though no poem he brings. 'Tis not rhyming alone — not sound makes the singer; 'tis He must see, hear and feel all the songs that he'sings. I am not at all certain no creed and no climbing Were needful to place poets just where they are. guerdon E'en the spot of one's birth, may it not be the For life on some planet pre-mortal, afar? An heir of the ages is poet, is preacher, A composite product, as everything shows. The poet is "born," but is also created, And haply the preacher helped make him—who knows? Salt Lake City, Utah.