The Englishman and Other Poems | Page 6

granite ledge,?And at its feet two suitors meet;?(I watch them, and I know)?One waits outside the casement edge;?One paces to and fro.
The Patient Rock speaks not a word;?The Sea goes up and down,?And sings full oft, in cadence soft;?(I listen, and have heard)?Again he wears an angry frown?By jealous passion stirred.
This dawn, the Rock was all aglow;?Far out the mad Sea went;?Beyond the raft, like one gone daft;?(I saw them, and I know)?While radiant and well content?Smiled down the Bungalow.
That was at Dawn; ere day had set,?The Sea with pleading voice?Came back to woo his love anew;?(I saw them when they met)?And now I know not which her choice -?(The Rock's gray face was wet.)
THE JEALOUS GODS
'Oh life is wonderful,' she said,?'And all my world is bright;?Can Paradise show fairer skies,?Or more effulgent light?'?(Speak lower, lower, mortal heart,?The jealous gods may hear.)
She turned for answer; but his gaze?Cut past her like a lance,?And shone like flame on one who came?With radiant glance for glance.?(You spoke too loud, O mortal heart,?The jealous gods were near.)
They walked through green and sunlit ways;?And yet the earth seemed black,?For there were three, where two should be;?So runs the world, alack.?(The listening gods, the jealous gods,?They want no Edens here.)
GOD RULES ALWAY
Into the world's most high and holy places
Men carry selfishness, and graft and greed.?The air is rent with warring of the races;
Loud Dogmas drown a brother's cry of need.?The Fleet-of-Creeds, upon Time's ocean lurches;
And there is mutiny upon her decks;?And in the light of temples, and of churches,
Against life's shores drift wrecks and derelicts.
(God rules, God rules alway.)
Right in the shadow of the lofty steeple,
Which crowns some costly edifice of faith,?Behold the throngs of hungry, unhoused people;
The 'Bread Line,' flanked by charity and death.?See yonder Churchman, opulently doing
Unnumbered deeds, which gladden and resound;?The while his thrifty tenant is pursuing
The white slave trade on sacred, untaxed ground.
(God rules, God rules alway.)
For these are but the outward signs of fever;
Those flaunting signs, which through delirium burn;?And the clear-seeing eye of each Believer
Can note the coming crisis. It will turn,?For it has reached its summit. Convalescing,
The sick world shall arise to strength and peace,?And earth shall bloom, with each and every blessing
Life waits to give, when wars and conflicts cease.
(God rules, God rules alway.)
This is a mighty hour. No sounds of drumming,
No flying flags, no heralds do appear;?No Wise Men of the East proclaim His coming;
Yet He is coming--nay, our Christ is here!?And man shall leave his fever dreams behind him;
Those dreams of avarice, and lust, and sin,?And seek his Lord; yea, he shall seek and find Him,
In his own soul, where He has always been.
(God rules, God rules alway.)
Man longs for God. Before the Christ we wot of,
With His brief mighty message, came to earth,?Before His life, or creed, or cross were thought of,
The love of love within man's breast had birth.?But blindly, through his carnal senses reaching,
He plucked dead fruit, and nothing has sufficed;?Nor can his soul find rest in any teaching,
Until he knows that he, himself, is Christ.
(God rules, God rules alway.)
Oh, when he knows this truth in all its splendour,
What majesty, what glory crowns his life:?And, one with God, his every thought is tender;
He cannot enter into war, or strife.?His love goes out to every race and nation;
His whole religion lies in being kind.?THIS IS THE CREED THAT MEANS THE WORLD'S SALVATION;
THE BIRTH OF CHRIST IN EVERY MORTAL MIND.
(God rules, God rules alway.)
THE CURE
You may talk of reformations, of the Economic Plan,
That shall stem the Social Evil in its course;?But the Ancient Sin of nations, must be got at in THE MAN.
If you want to cleanse a river, seek the source.
Ever since his first beginning, Man has had his way, in lust.
He has never learned the law of Self-Control;?And the World condones his sinning, and the Doctors say he must,
And the Churches shut their eyes, and take his toll.
And the lauded 'Lovely Mothers' send the son out into life
With no knowledge-welded armour for the fight;?'He will make his way like others, through the Oat field, to the Wife';
'He will somehow be led onward, to the light.'
Yes, his leaders, they shall find him. On the highways at each turn,
(Since you did not choose to counsel or to warn,)?They shall tempt him, then shall bind him; they shall blight, and they shall burn,
Down to offspring and descendants yet unborn.
It can never end through preaching; it can never end through laws;
This social sore, no punishment can heal.?It must be the mother's teaching of the purpose, and the cause,
And God's glory, lying under sex appeal.
She must feel no fear to name it to the children it has brought;
She must speak of it as sacred, and sublime;?She must beautify, not shame it, by her speech and by her thought;
Till they listen, and respect it, for all time.
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