Poems of Experience | Page 5

was made for sleep.
Time has cut his beard, and lo!
He is but a boy,?Singing, on with him we go,
Ah! but life is joy.
II
We are the vendors of beauty,
We the purveyors for hell;?The carnal bliss of a purchased kiss
And the pleasures that blight, we sell.?God pity us; God pity the world.
We are the sad race-victims
Of the misused force in man,?Of the great white flame burned black with shame
And lost to the primal plan.?God pity us; God pity the world.
We are the Purpose of Being
Gone wrong in the thought of the world.?The torch for its hand made a danger brand
And into the darkness hurled.?God pity us; God pity the world.
III
We are the toilers in the realm of night?(Long, long the hours of night),?We are the human lever, wheel, and bolt,?That keeps the civic vehicle from jolt,?And jar upon the shining track of day
(The unremembered day).
We sleep away the sunlit hours of life?(Unsatisfied, sad life),?We wake in shadow and we rise in gloom.?False as a wanton's artificial bloom?Is that made light we labour in till dawn
(The lonely, laggard dawn).
Like visions half remembered in a dream?(A strange and broken dream)?Our children's faces, seen but while they sleep,?Within our hearts these weary hours we keep.?We are the toilers in the realm of night
(Long, long the hours of night).
CHORUS
We are hope and faith and sorrow,?We are peace and pain and passion,?We are ardent lovers kissing,?We are happy mothers crooning,?We are rosy children dreaming,?We are honest labour sleeping,?We are wholesome pleasure laughing,?We are wakeful riches feasting,?We are lifted spirits praying,?We the voices of the city.
Out of the medley rose these broken strains,?In changing time and ever-changing keys.
IF CHRIST CAME QUESTIONING
If Christ came questioning His world to-day,?(If Christ came questioning,)?'What hast thou done to glorify thy God,?Since last My feet this lower earth plane trod?'?How could I answer Him; and in what way?One evidence of my allegiance bring;?If Christ came questioning.
If Christ came questioning, to me alone,?(If Christ came questioning,)?I could not point to any church or shrine?And say, 'I helped build up this house of Thine;?Behold the altar, and the corner stone';?I could not show one proof of such a thing;?If Christ came questioning.
If Christ came questioning, on His demand,?(If Christ came questioning,)?No pagan soul converted to His creed?Could I proclaim; or say, that word or deed?Of mine, had spread the faith in any land;?Or sent it forth, to fly on stronger wing;?If Christ came questioning.
If Christ came questioning the soul of me,?(If Christ came questioning,)?I could but answer, 'Lord, my little part?Has been to beat the metal of my heart,?Into the shape I thought most fit for Thee;?And at Thy feet, to cast the offering;?Shouldst Thou come questioning.
'From out the earth-fed furnaces of desire,?(Ere Thou cam'st questioning,)?This formless and unfinished gift I brought,?And on life's anvil flung it down, white hot:?A glowing thing, of selfishness and fire,?With blow on blow, I made the anvil ring;?(Ere Thou cam'st questioning).
'The hammer, Self-Control, beat hard on it;?(Ere Thou cam'st questioning,)?And with each blow, rose fiery sparks of pain;?I bear their scars, on body, soul, and brain.?Long, long I toiled; and yet, dear Lord, unfit,?And all unworthy, is the heart I bring,?To meet Thy questioning.'
ENGLAND, AWAKE!
A beautiful great lady, past her prime,
Behold her dreaming in her easy chair;?Gray robed, and veiled; in laces old and rare,?Her smiling eyes see but the vanished time,?Of splendid prowess, and of deeds sublime.
Self satisfied she sits, all unaware?That peace has flown before encroaching care,?And through her halls stalks hunger, linked with crime.
England, awake! from dreams of what has been,
Look on what IS, and put the past away.?Speak to your sons, until they understand.?England, awake! for dreaming now is sin;
In all your ancient wisdom, rise to-day,?And save the glory of your menaced land.
BE NOT ATTACHED
'Be not attached.' So runs the great command?For those who seek to 'know' and 'understand.'?Who sounds the waters of the deeper sea?Must first draw up his anchor and go free.
But not for me, that knowledge. I must wait?Until again I enter through life's gate.?I am not brave enough to sail away?To farther seas, and leave this beauteous bay.
Love barnacled, my anchor lies; and oh!?I would not lift it if I could, and go?All unattached, to find those truths which lie?Far out at sea, beneath a lonely sky.
Though peace of heart, and happiness of soul,?Await the seeker at that farther goal,?With love and all its rapture and its pain,?Close to the shores of earth I must remain.
Nor yet would I relinquish my sweet dream?To gain possession of the Fact supreme.?I am attached, and well content to stay,?Learning such truths as love may send my way.
AN EPISODE
Along the narrow Moorish street
A blue-eyed soldier strode.
(Ah, well-a-day)?Veiled from her lashes to her feet
She stepped from her abode,
(Ah, lack-a-day).
Now love may guard a favoured wife
Who leaves the harem door;
(Ah, well-a-day)?But hungry hearted is her life
When she