| “WE are false and evanescent, and aware of our deceit, | |
| From the straw that is our vitals to the clay that is our feet. | |
| You may serve us if you must, and you shall have your wage of ashes,— | |
| Though arrears due thereafter may be hard for you to meet. | |
| |
| “You may swear that we are solid, you may say that we are strong, | 5 |
| But we know that we are neither and we say that you are wrong; | |
| You may find an easy worship in acclaiming our indulgence, | |
| But your large admiration of us now is not for long. | |
| |
| “If your doom is to adore us with a doubt that’s never still, | |
| And you pray to see our faces—pray in earnest, and you will. | 10 |
| You may gaze at us and live, and live assured of our confusion: | |
| For the False Gods are mortal, and are made for you to kill. | |
| |
| “And you may as well observe, while apprehensively at ease | |
| With an Art that’s inorganic and is anything you please, | |
| That anon your newest ruin may lie crumbling unregarded, | 15 |
| Like an old shrine forgotten in a forest of new trees. | |
| |
| “Howsoever like no other be the mode you may employ, | |
| There’s an order in the ages for the ages to enjoy; | |
| Though the temples you are shaping and the passions you are singing | |
| Are a long way from Athens and a longer way from Troy. | 20 |
| |
| “When we promise more than ever of what never shall arrive, | |
| And you seem a little more than ordinarily alive, | |
| Make a note that you are sure you understand our obligations— | |
| For there’s grief always auditing where two and two are five. | |
| |
| “There was this for us to say and there was this for you to know, | 25 |
| Though it humbles and it hurts us when we have to tell you so. | |
| If you doubt the only truth in all our perjured composition, | |
| May the True Gods attend you and forget us when we go.” | |
