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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A PRAYER OF THE PEOPLES, by PERCY MACKAYE Poet's Biography First Line: God of us who kill our kind! Last Line: We, who pray, ourselves are fate. Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace Subject(s): God; Prayer Meetings; Religion; Soul; Theology | |||
GOD of us who kill our kind! Master of this blood-tracked Mind Which from wolf and Caliban Staggers toward the star of Man — Now, on Thy cathedral stair, God, we cry to Thee in prayer! Where our stifled anguish bleeds Strangling through Thine organ reeds, Where our voiceless songs suspire From the corpses in Thy choir — Through Thy charred and shattered nave, God, we cry on Thee to save! Save us from our tribal gods! From the racial powers, whose rods — Wreathed with stinging serpents — stir Odin and old Jupiter From their ancient hells of hate To invade Thy dawning state. Save us from their curse of kings! Free our souls' imaginings From the feudal dreams of war; Yea, God, let us nevermore Make, with slaves' idolatry, Kaiser, king or czar of Thee! We who, craven in our prayer, Would lay off on Thee our care — Lay instead on us Thy load; On our minds Thy spirit's goad, On our laggard wills Thy whips And Thy passion on our lips! Fill us with the reasoned faith That the prophet lies, who saith All this web of destiny, Torn and tangled, cannot be Newly wove and redesigned By the Godward human mind. Teach us, so, no more to call Guidance supernatural To our help, but — heart and will — Know ourselves responsible For our world of wasted good And our blinded brotherhood. Lord, our God! to whom, from clay, Blood and mire, Thy peoples pray — Not from Thy cathedral's stair Thou hearest: — Thou criest through our prayer For our prayer is but the gate: We, who pray, ourselves are fate. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MYSTIC BOUNCE by TERRANCE HAYES MATHEMATICS CONSIDERED AS A VICE by ANTHONY HECHT UNHOLY SONNET 11 by MARK JARMAN SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE COMING OF THE PLAGUE by WELDON KEES A LITHUANIAN ELEGY by ROBERT KELLY |
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