PRELIMINARY REBUKE

Don't shoot the pianist; he's doing his best.

Gesundheit! Knockers! have your Fling!

Unto an Anvilfest you're bid;

It took a Lot of Hammering,

To build Old Cheops' Pyramid!

Ventures into Verse

BY HENRY L. MENCKEN

Prophet of brawn and bravery!

Bard of the fighting man!

You have made us kneel to a God of Steel,

And to fear his church's ban;

You have taught the song that the bullet sings—

The knell and the crowning ode of kings;

The ne'er denied appeal!

Prophet of brain and handicraft!

Bard of our grim machines!

You have made us dream of a God of Steam,

And have shown what his worship means

In the clanking rod and the whirring wheel

A life and a soul your songs reveal,

And power and might supreme.

Bard of the East and mystery!

Singer of those who bow

To the earthen clods that they call their gods

And with god-like fees endow;

You have shown that these heed not the suppliant's plea,

Nor the prayers of the priest and devotee,

Nor the vestal's futile vow.

Singer, we ask what we cannot learn

From our wise men and our schools;

Will our offered slain from our gods obtain

But the old reward of fools?

Will our man-made gods be like their kind?

If we bow to a clod of clay enshrined

Will we pray our prayers in vain?