| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Beside the Master | | By Joseph Walleser |
| | | GOD spoke to me to-day. | |
| Clearly I heard Him speak, | |
| And yet I could not understand. | |
| |
| Since death withdrew a hand that lay in mine, | |
| Sad had I been for everything; | 5 |
| For I had seen, | |
| As all men sometime see, | |
| The one dark flaw in rosy dawn. | |
| |
| In need thereafter was I fain | |
| To pluck a comfort from my days: | 10 |
| That I might love what would not die, | |
| In whatsoever I had need to do | |
| I sought for beauty. | |
| |
| But now to-day, | |
| Not many moments since, | 15 |
| I stood where I beheld the birth of moths. | |
| I saw them born in suffering; | |
| I saw their beauty; | |
| I saw them die; | |
| One brief hour passed | 20 |
| Between their birth and death. | |
| |
| Therein God spoke to me: | |
| With how much pain he labors, | |
| How delicate His workmanship, | |
| How careless He to cast away! | 25 |
| |
| I cannot understand | |
| What He would have me know. | | | | |
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