 | Under the dawn |  |
133
MAN'S PROTEST.
Against the God who forged despair and thunder,
I, Man, protest;
Who gave us love, and hid his poison under
Love's snow-white breast;
Who gave us life, and cleaves that life in sunder
When it seemeth him best.
I, Man, protest;
Who gave us love, and hid his poison under
Love's snow-white breast;
Who gave us life, and cleaves that life in sunder
When it seemeth him best.
I, Man, the lordly spirit of all things,
Thus tortured, wail!
I, Man, the fairest of all tall things
That walk or fly or sail,
Gathering the common outcry of all small things,
With face not pale,
Thus tortured, wail!
I, Man, the fairest of all tall things
That walk or fly or sail,
Gathering the common outcry of all small things,
With face not pale,
But open and large and as the heaven above me,
Do protest!
Make common cause with Man, all ye who love me;
To my breast
Fly, tortured beasts and birds whose pangs do move me;
Therein rest.
Do protest!
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To my breast
Fly, tortured beasts and birds whose pangs do move me;
Therein rest.
Yea, rest, and be at peace from all things evil;
I, Man, have spoken;
Fear not the fiery threats of God or devil,
Christ hath broken
The swords with which the fiends were wont to revel—
For a token
I, Man, have spoken;
Fear not the fiery threats of God or devil,
Christ hath broken
The swords with which the fiends were wont to revel—
For a token
He hath sent upon me the spirit of Man a power
To disturb and to defy
The God who slew your spirits till this hour
With agony,
And bruised the delicate bloom of many a flower
With thunder from his sky.
To disturb and to defy
The God who slew your spirits till this hour
With agony,
And bruised the delicate bloom of many a flower
With thunder from his sky.
He hath sent upon me the spirit of Man a glory
Unseen before,
Now that the long past ages find me hoary,
And Time's shore
Lengthens, and all the unceasing human story,
I pour
Unseen before,
Now that the long past ages find me hoary,
And Time's shore
Lengthens, and all the unceasing human story,
I pour
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Strength endless, courage undivulged upon you—
Prosper, for I
Am mightier than the God that has overthrown you;
Against his sky,
Whence his storm of thunder and rain has blown you,
I protest, and I cry.
Prosper, for I
Am mightier than the God that has overthrown you;
Against his sky,
Whence his storm of thunder and rain has blown you,
I protest, and I cry.
Against a God who tortures human creatures
Without a purpose fair,
Who makes and mars, and makes again their features,
Till they cannot bear
Their own bestowed intolerable natures,
Given for a snare.
Without a purpose fair,
Who makes and mars, and makes again their features,
Till they cannot bear
Their own bestowed intolerable natures,
Given for a snare.
Against this God, I, Man, with all my fire
Of spirit, do protest,
Hurling against him from my trembling lyre,
And trembling breast,
The arrows of unutterable desire,
The sounds of an unspeakable unrest.
Of spirit, do protest,
Hurling against him from my trembling lyre,
And trembling breast,
The arrows of unutterable desire,
The sounds of an unspeakable unrest.
| Under the dawn | |