Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.
By Bernard O’Dowd81 . Love and Sacrifice
C
To man and God above
This volume of our great
Supernal tide of love?
On merely me and you,
In selfish touch and taste,
As other lovers do.
It came from the Divine,
Whose glory still it wears,
And print of Whose design.
The time is blurred with dust,
Illusions breed and grow,
And eyes’ and flesh’s lust.
And stint the weakling’s bread;
The very lords of song
With Luxury have wed.
And loiters with the gay;
And only gods of brass
Are popular to-day.
Such lightning love as ours,
Could spread, if we desired,
Dismay among such powers:
Of filth where festers strife:
Through modern baseness surge
A holier tide of life.
From such a source, could draw
The angels from above
To lead all to their Law.
Repose in rosy bower,
When Hunger thins the cheek
Of childhood every hour:
’Mid youths and maidens roams,
Should Duty skulk within
These selfish cosy homes.
With those crusaders, who
Maintain the rights of man
’Gainst despot and his crew.
Their load of pain from men,
The greatest right of Love
Is to renounce It then.
And sadly helpers needs:
And, till its burden goes,
Our work is—where it bleeds.