II

Oh, weirder grows the whisper into word,

As sharp as lightening, and as broad of reach,

As seas, flung down by God to every beach

Where thirsts a sparrow, or a bleating herd!

There is no soul through out the land, not stirred;

For, oh, to glory God gives his own speech

When darkness, raised by Gold, declares that each,

Hulk-held, is good but for the wolf and bird.

Is Gold grown conscious, now the Country's King

That, at his beck, the blood for Freedom spilt

Shall be accursed, and I, then, for the guilt

Of dropping not with thud, as he with ring

At Darkness' feet, be shut in mud and silt

Forever and with stars, cease, beaconing?