"The People"! These demure incompetents, These dollar drunkards, this illustrious knave, This greasy, indistinguishable horde Crept from the slime of Europe and the East! "The People"! Yonder pure, heroic soul, A-tilt with wind-mills! Golden heads of youth, And flaming heads of passion; hearts of hope, And hopeless hearts that beat the breasts of doom! "The People"! Common drudges tamely great, Leeches that suck the wealth of other men, Passers from hand to hand, and spider kings Crouched in the centre of a monstrous web! "The People"! Seers that know but dare not tell, Bawlers that tell but do not see or know, Careless and brutal, stupid and intent, The rogue, the saint, the craven, and the fool! "The People"! Ah, the swarming multitudes, The endless tramp of feet and sway of heads, The dizzy, desperate throng, the awful mass Pressing and pressing on the heart of God! The heart of God! Oh, patient heart of God! That knows a thousand years are as a day, That sees as one a million tossing lives, And out of chaos brings a perfect world. In the beginning, in the formless void, He gathered lands and seas, the barren lands And fruitful, seas of calm and seas of wrath, And stagnant swamps; and saw that it was good. He drew the land to verdure, leaves of health And leaves of deadly poison, ranking weeds, Difficult wheat, slow oak, the vampire vine, The angry thorn, and saw that it was good. He molded life: the lizard and the dove, The faithful dog and serpents treacherous, Blind moles, proud eagles, creatures of the dark And of the sun, and saw that it was good. And He, yes, He made man, incongruous man, Man that confronts the stars victoriously, Man that consorts with tigers and the toad, Brute-glorious man, and saw that he was good. "The People"! So God's people, hopeful so; For all things work together for the good; Not all things work the good, but all things, all, Working together, bring the final good. Thy people, just Creator! Through the mesh Of tangled fates, the snarl of good and ill, We life our feebly trusting hands to Thee, Who seest, Thou alone, that it is good. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BROKEN PITCHER by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN TO MUSIC [TO BECALM HIS FEVER] by ROBERT HERRICK BALLADE OF A TRAVELLER'S JINX by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PRAYER FOR A CITY CHILD by DOROTHY P. ALBAUGH THE CUCKOO by ALEXANDER ANDERSON PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 14. AL-MUZAWWIR by EDWIN ARNOLD UNCLE OUT O' DEBT AN' OUT O' DANGER by WILLIAM BARNES |