Collected Poems Volume I Part 13

The angel sank his head:

"Word from the nations of the East and West,"

He moaned, "that blood is best.

The patriot prayers of either half of earth, Hear Thou, and judge their worth.

Out of the obscene seas of slaughter, hear, First, the first nation's prayer: '_O G.o.d, deliver Thy people. Let Thy sword Destroy our enemies, Lord!_'

"Pure as the first, as pa.s.sionate in trust That their own cause is just; Puppets as fond in those dark hands of greed; As fervent in their creed; As blindly moved, as utterly betrayed, As urgent for Thine aid; Out of the obscene seas of slaughter, hear The second nation's prayer: '_O G.o.d, deliver Thy people. Let Thy sword Destroy our enemies, Lord._'

"Over their slaughtered children, one great cry From either enemy!

From either host, thigh-deep in filth and shame, One prayer, one and the same; Out of the obscene seas of slaughter, hear, From East and West, one prayer: '_O G.o.d, deliver Thy people. Let Thy sword Destroy our enemies, Lord._'"

Then, on the Cross of His creative pain, G.o.d bowed His head again.

Then, East and West, over all seas and lands, Out-stretched His pierced hands.

"And yet," Sandalphon whispered, "men deny The Eternal Calvary."

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE

[_Written in answer to certain scientific p.r.o.nouncements_]

I

_In the beginning?_--Slowly grope we back Along the narrowing track, Back to the deserts of the world's pale prime, The mire, the clay, the slime; And then ... what then? Surely to something less; Back, back, to Nothingness!

II

You dare not halt upon that dwindling way!

There is no gulf to stay Your footsteps to the last. Go back you must!

Far, far below the dust, Descend, descend! Grade by dissolving grade, We follow, unafraid!

Dissolve, dissolve this moving world of men Into thin air--and then?

III

O pioneers, O warriors of the Light, In that abysmal night, Will you have courage, then, to rise and tell Earth of this miracle?

Will you have courage, then, to bow the head, And say, when all is said--

"Out of this Nothingness arose our thought!

This blank abysmal Nought Woke, and brought forth that lighted City street, Those towers, that armoured fleet?" ...

IV

When you have seen those vacant primal skies Beyond the centuries.

Watched the pale mists across their darkness flow, As in a lantern-show, Weaving, by merest "chance," out of thin air, Pageants of praise and prayer; Watched the great hills like clouds arise and set, And one--named Olivet; When you have seen, as a shadow pa.s.sing away, One child clasp hands and pray; When you have seen emerge from that dark mire One martyr, ringed with fire; Or, from that Nothingness, by special grace, One woman's love-lit face, ...

V

Will you have courage, then, to front that law (From which your sophists draw Their only right to flout one human creed) That nothing can proceed-- Not even thought, not even love--from less Than its own nothingness?

The law is yours! But dare you waive your pride, And kneel where you denied?

The law is yours! Dare you re-kindle, then, One faith for faithless men, And say you found, on that dark road you trod, _In the beginning--G.o.d_?

THE LAST BATTLE

Kings of the earth, Kings of the earth, the trumpet rings for warning, And like the golden swords that ray from out the setting sun The shout goes out of the trumpet mouth across the hills of morning, Wake; for the last great battle dawns and all the wars are done.

Now all the plains of Europe smoke with marching hooves of thunder, And through each ragged mountain-gorge the guns begin to gleam; And round a hundred cities where the women watch and wonder, The tramp of pa.s.sing armies aches and faints into a dream.

The King of Ind is drawing nigh: a hundred leagues are clouded Along his loud earth-shaking march from east to western sea: The King o' the Setting Sun is here and all the seas are shrouded With sails that carry half the world to front Eternity.

Soon shall the darkness roll around the grappling of the nations, A darkness lit with deadly gleams of blood and steel and fire; Soon shall the last great paean of earth's war-worn generations Roar through the thunder-clouded air round War's red funeral pyre.

But here defeat and victory are both allied with heaven, The enfolding sky makes every foe the centre of her dome, Each fights for G.o.d and his own right, and unto each is given The right to find the heart of heaven where'er he finds his home.

O, who shall win, and who shall lose, and who shall take the glory Here at the meeting of the roads, where every cause is right?

O, who shall live, and who shall die, and who shall tell the story?

Each strikes for faith and fatherland in that immortal fight.

High on the grey old hills of Time the last immortal rally, Under the storm of the last great tattered flag, shall laugh to see The blood of Armageddon roll from every smoking valley, Shall laugh aloud, then rush on death for G.o.d and chivalry.

Kings of the earth, Kings of the earth, O, which of you then shall inherit The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory? for the world's old light grows dim And the cry of you all goes up all night to the dark enfolding Spirit, Each of you fights for G.o.d and home; but G.o.d, ah, what of Him?

THE PARADOX

"I Am that I Am"

I

All that is broken shall be mended; All that is lost shall be found; I will bind up every wound When that which is begun shall be ended.

Not peace I brought among you but a sword To divide the night from the day, When I sent My worlds forth in their battle-array To die and to live, To give and to receive, Saith the Lord.

II

Of old time they said none is good save our G.o.d; But ye that have seen how the ages have shrunk from my rod, And how red is the wine-press wherein at my bidding they trod, Have answered and said that with Eden I fashioned the snake, That I mould you of clay for a moment, then mar you and break, And there is none evil but I, the supreme Evil, G.o.d.

Lo, I say unto both, I am neither; But greater than either; For meeting and mingling in Me they become neither evil nor good; Their cycle is rounded, they know neither hunger nor food, They need neither sickle nor seed-time, nor root nor fruit, They are ultimate, infinite, absolute.