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NATIONAL APOSTACY by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE

First Line: TRAMPLING A DARK HILL, A RED SUN ATHWART

TRAMPLING a dark hill, a red sun athwart,
I saw a host that rent their clothes and hair,
And dashed their spread hands against that sunset glare,
And cried, " Go from us, God, since God thou art!
Utterly from our coasts and towns depart,
Court, camp, and senate-hall, and mountain bare:
Our pomp Thou troublest, and our feast dost scare,
And with Thy temples dost confuse our mart!
Depart Thou from our hearing and our seeing:
Depart Thou from the works and ways of men;
Their laws, their thoughts, the inmost of their being:
Black Nightmare, hence! that earth may breathe again. "
Can God depart? I said. Then one replied,
Close by-" Not so: each Sin at heart is Deicide."




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