For those dullest lives we spent, Take these Few magnificent! For that host of blotted ones, Take these glittering central suns. Few;--but how their lustre thrives On the million broken lives! Splendid, over dark and doubt, For a million souls gone out! These, the holders of our hoard,-- Wilt thou not accept them, Lord? V Oh in the wakening thunders of the heart, --The small lost Eden, troubled through the night, Sounds there not now,--forboded and apart, Some voice and sword of light? Some voice and portent of a dawn to break?-- Searching like God, the ruinous human shard Of that lost Brother-man Himself did make, And Man himself hath marred? It sounds!--And may the anguish of that birth Seize on the world; and may all shelters fail, Till we behold new Heaven and new Earth Through the rent Temple-vail! When the high-tides that threaten near and far To sweep away our guilt before the sky,-- Flooding the waste of this dishonored Star, Cleanse, and o'ewhelm, and cry! Cry, from the deep of world-accusing waves, With longing more than all since Light began, Above the nations,--underneath the graves,-- 'Give back the Singing Man!' NOTES =and it was good=:--Genesis, 1:31: "And God saw all that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." =the ancient threat of deserts=:--Isaiah, 35:1-2: "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." =after his laboring=:--Luke, 10:7, and 1st Timothy, 5:18: "The laborer is worthy of his hire." =portion of his labor=:--Ecclesiastes, 2:10: "For my heart rejoiced in my labor; and this was my portion of all my labor." =the light is sweet=:--Ecclesiastes, 11:7: "Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." =How long=:--Revelation, 6:10: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" =when the sea=:--Revelation, 20:13: "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it." =rejected and despised=:--For this and the remainder of the stanza, see Isaiah, 53. =Titans=:--In Greek mythology, powerful and troublesome giants. =Cain=:--See the story of Cain, Genesis, 4:2-16. =searching like God=:--Genesis, 4:9: "And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not! Am I my brother's keeper?" =Temple-vail=:--At the death of Christ, the vail of the temple was rent; see Matthew, 27:51. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY[15] Read the poem slowly and thoughtfully. The "singing man" is the laborer who, in days gone by, was happy in his work. People were not crowded into great cities, and there was more simple out-door labor than there is now, and less strife for wealth.