University of Virginia Library

INVOCATION

God of the hand and loin and burning heart,
God of the whelming ecstasy and lust,
God of the fretful youth and lifeless dust,
God that art travailed with a vital smart!
God of the earlier races, limbed like Mars,
Epic as Odin echoing bell-voiced forth,
God of the sun-gilt South and iron North,
Symbol of life's impulsion—God of Wars!
Thine, in thy powerful hand, before mankind
Sprang from the womb of nature, blazed the sword,

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Forged in the vital heat creation poured,
White from its core and tempered in the wind,
That walked through chaos down the cold expanse
Of lucent solitude from sun to sun!
O sign of life when life was unbegun,
This life of earth where death is circumstance!