The myriad wonders art hath wrought I deemed eternal as God's love: No more than shadows these shall prove, And insubstantial as a thought. And love and labor, who have gone, Hand in close hand, and civilized The wilderness, these shall be prized No more than if they had not done. Then wherefore strive? Why strain and bend Beneath a burden so unjust? Our works are builded out of dust, And dust their universal end. Pagan The gods, who could loose and bind In the long ago, The gods, who were stern and kind To men below, Where shall we seek and find, Or, finding, know? Where Greece, with king on king, Dreamed in her halls; Where Rome kneeled worshiping, The owl now calls, And whispering ivies cling To mouldering walls. They have served, and have passed away From the earth and sky, And their Creed is a record gray, Where the passer-by Reads, "Live and be glad to-day, For to-morrow ye die." And shall it be so, indeed, When we are no more, That nations to be shall read,-- As we have before,-- In the dust of a Christian Creed, But pagan lore? "The Fathers of our Fathers" Written February 24, 1898, on reading the latest news concerning the battleship Maine, blown up in Havana harbor, February 15th. I. The fathers of our fathers they were men!-- What are we who now stand idle while we see our seamen slain? Who behold our flag dishonored, and still pause! Are we blind to her duplicity, the treachery of Spain? To the rights, she scorns, of nations and their laws? Let us rise, a mighty people, let us wipe away the stain! Must we wait till she insult us for a cause?-- The fathers of our fathers they were men! II. The fathers of our fathers they were men!-- Had they nursed delay as we do? had they sat thus deaf and dumb, With these cowards compromising year by year? Never hearing what they should hear, never saying what should come, While the courteous mask of Spain still hid a sneer! No! such news had roused their natures like a rolling battle-drum-- God of earth! and God of heaven! do we fear?-- The fathers of our fathers they were men! III. The fathers of our fathers they were men!-- What are we who are so cautious, never venturing too far! Shall we, at the cost of honor, still keep peace? While we see the thousands starving and the struggling Cuban star, And the outraged form of Freedom on her knees! Let our long, steel ocean-bloodhounds, adamantine dogs of war, Sweep the yellow Spanish panther from the seas!-- The fathers of our fathers they were men! "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" I.