| |
| THE WAR-GOD wakened drowsily; | |
| There were gold chains about his hands. | |
| He said: “And who shall reap my lands | |
| And bear the tithes to Death for me? | |
| |
| “The nations stilled my thunderings; | 5 |
| They wearied of my steel despair, | |
| The flames from out my burning hair: | |
| Is there an ending of such things?” | |
| |
| Low laughed the Earth, and answered: “When | |
| Was any changeless law I gave | 10 |
| Changed by my sons intent to save, | |
| By puny pitying hands of men? | |
| |
| “I feel no ruth for some I bear…. | |
| The swarming, hungering overflow | |
| Of crowded millions, doomed to go, | 15 |
| They must destroy who chained you there. | |
| |
| “For some bright stone or shining praise | |
| They stint a million bodies’ breath, | |
| And sell the women, shamed, to death, | |
| And send the men brief length of days. | 20 |
| |
| “They kill the bodies swift for me, | |
| And kill the souls you gave to peace…. | |
| You were more merciful than these, | |
| Old master of my cruelty. | |
| |
| “Lo, souls are scarred and virtues dim: | 25 |
| Take back thy scourge of ministry, | |
| Rise from thy silence suddenly, | |
| Lest these still take Death’s toll to him!” | |
| |
| The War-God snapped his golden chain: | |
| His mercies thundered down the world, | 30 |
| And lashing battle-lines uncurled | |
| And scourged the crouching lands again. | |
| |
