"Who never doubts the highest peak Of his transcendent hour, And boldly ventures forth to seek Fulfilment of his power: "For him God waits beyond the sun, His Christ of many scars, To give for that which he hath done A heritage of stars." REVELATION All is revealed--naught is concealed! Sudden and swift, like the feet of the spring; Laughter of children in torrents of tears; Breathing of blossoms from orchards that fling Perfumes in prodigal scorn of the years Empty of fruitage; like the touch of a hand Soft and compassionate, known in the deep Valley of Death; like the flame from the brand Flung from a watchfire to frighten and keep Back from the fold the striped Terror that stares: All is revealed! A SONG OF WORKERS Hail to the hodmen, The builders of houses! Hail to the navvies Laying pipes for pure water! Hail to the miners Prisoned in pits, Cleaving the coal, Dauntless of death from the gases! Here's to you, sailors, Brave on the boisterous Breast of the ocean, Tanned by the sun and the tempest! Here's to you, trainmen-- Couplers and stokers-- All you conductors-- You with your hand on the throttle! Gloria! Doctors, Nurses and mothers, Teachers of children, Patient with feet that are plodding; Gloria! Students, Lovers of nature, And you scientists-- Priests of the veiled, vast Shekinahs! A SONG OF BATTLES You will not do this thing again! What thing? Mistake of owning overmuch: Great palaces and princely halls, Gardens of Babylon that hang High on a many-terraced hill, Created at the cost of slaves Dead by the thousands; that some queen Might gaze in rapture of her lord. Strange how the saddened centuries Stood clothed in garments red with blood Poured from the veins of innocents, Their mothers glad to give them birth, Their fathers driven forth to slay And to be slain on battle fields! Why?--Why? Because a few men sold their souls For little heaps of minted gold-- Round pieces stamped with Cæsar's face Or Alexander's awful brow-- Gold pieces whose possession gives Command of battle ships and legions armed for enemies, Raised up because of gold! gold! gold! For when man gathers overmuch God is exchanged for paltry dust; And when God goes the devil comes In panoply of armies: Drums beating-- Trumpets blowing-- Flags fluttering--- Men hating, fighting, bleeding, dying; Women wailing and beating their breasts; Cities in conflagration; Tall towers tumbling to an accompaniment of thunder, Tumbling down among the statues and the pictures, Silencing the song of the singers, Making the beautiful ugly, Smothering in wide encompassing smoke The children--the glad, the wonderful children-- God's lilies of laughter-- His immaculate ones! I tell you gold is the cause of war, That war is the price we pay for gold-- Gold for which we give God!