They blessed the earth that gave them birth—
But passed all time and tide,
They blessed their Lord-Creator—
Nor knew Him mystified.
They came and went—the little men—
The men of a primal breed—
And the Lord He gathered them as they lived,
Each in his simple creed.
And the Lord He gathered them as they came—
Ere the Earth had time to cool
And the horde of Cain had clouted the brain
’Neath the lash of a monstrous school.
II
The Lord looked down on the nether Earth
He had made so fair and green—
Fertile valleys and snow-capped hills
And the oceans that lie between.
And He saw the strife of the thousand sects—
And ever anew they came—
Torture and farce and infamy
Committed in His name.
Figure and form and fetich—
Councils of hate and greed—
Prophet on prophet warring,
Each to his separate need.
Symbol and sign and surplice
And ostentatious prayer,
And the hollow mock of the chanceled dark
Flung back through the raftered air.
. . . . . . . . . .
And the Lord He gazèd wistfully
Through the track of a falling star;
And He turned His sight from the homes of men,
Where the ranting cabals are.