God made man in His own image, in the image of God made He him.- Genesis. Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans And on his back the burden of the world. Who made him dead to rapture and despair, The Man with the Hoe A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? To have dominion over sea and land; To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To feel the passion of Eternity? Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns And marked their ways upon the ancient deep? Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf There is no shape more terrible than this More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed More filled with signs and portents for the soul— More fraught with menace to the universe. What gulfs between him and the seraphim! The Man with the Hoe Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, Is this the handiwork you give to God, This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched? Give back the upward looking and the light; O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, I looked one night, and there Semiramis, And then her voice rang out with rattling laugh: |