Voice on the Wind, and Other Poems

<h2><SPAN name="LIFE" id="LIFE"></SPAN>LIFE</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <h4>I</h4> <h3>PESSIMIST</h3> <span class="i0">There is never a thing we dream or do<br/></span> <span class="i1">But was dreamed and done in the ages gone;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Everything's old; there is nothing that's new,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And so it will be while the world goes on.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The thoughts we think have been thought before;<br/></span> <span class="i1">The deeds we do have long been done;<br/></span> <span class="i0">We pride ourselves on our love and lore<br/></span> <span class="i1">And both are as old as the moon and sun.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">We strive and struggle and swink and sweat,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And the end for each is one and the same;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Time and the sun and the frost and wet<br/></span> <span class="i1">Will wear from its pillar the greatest name.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">No answer comes for our prayer or curse,<br/></span> <span class="i1">No word replies though we shriek in air;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Ever the taciturn universe<br/></span> <span class="i1">Stretches unchanged for our curse or prayer.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">With our mind's small light in the dark we crawl,&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i1">Glow-worm glimmers that creep about,&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Tilt the Power that shaped us, over us all<br/></span> <span class="i1">Poises His foot and treads us out.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</SPAN></span> <span class="i0">Unasked He fashions us out of clay,<br/></span> <span class="i1">A little water, a little dust,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And then in our holes He thrusts us away,<br/></span> <span class="i1">With never a word, to rot and rust.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">'Tis a sorry play with a sorry plot,<br/></span> <span class="i1">This life of hate and of lust and pain,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Where we play our parts and are soon forgot,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And all that we do is done in vain.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <h4>II</h4> <h3>OPTIMIST</h3> <span class="i0">There is never a dream but it shall come true,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And never a deed but was wrought by plan;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And life is filled with the strange and new,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And ever has been since the world began.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">As mind develops and soul matures<br/></span> <span class="i1">These two shall parent Earth's mightier acts;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Love is a fact, and 'tis love endures<br/></span> <span class="i1">'Though the world make wreck of all other facts.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Through thought alone shall our Age obtain<br/></span> <span class="i1">Above all Ages gone before;<br/></span> <span class="i0">The tribes of sloth, of brawn, not brain,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Are the tribes that perish, are known no more.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</SPAN></span> <span class="i0">Within ourselves is a voice of Awe,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And a hand that points to Balanced Scales;<br/></span> <span class="i0">The one is Love and the other Law,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And their presence alone it is avails.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">For every shadow about our way<br/></span> <span class="i1">There is a glory of moon and sun;<br/></span> <span class="i0">But the hope within us hath more of ray<br/></span> <span class="i1">Than the light of the sun and moon in one.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Behind all being a purpose lies,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Undeviating as God hath willed;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And he alone it is who dies,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Who leaves that purpose unfulfilled.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Life is an epic the Master sings,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Whose theme is Man, and whose music, Soul,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Where each is a word in the Song of Things,<br/></span> <span class="i1">That shall roll on while the ages roll.<br/></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />