Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GOD OF PROGRESS, by ALICE GILL BENTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GOD OF PROGRESS, by                
First Line: The god of progress rides the wings of time
Last Line: To offer at his shrine as he rides by?
Subject(s): Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869-1948); Hammurapi (d. 1750 B.c.); India; Pasteur, Louis (1822-1895); Progress


The God of Progress rides the wings of time,
Out of the distant ages, dim and vast,
While campaniles of the planets chime
The swift, elusive aeons, flying past.
His right hand holds the lightning of thought --
His scepter and insignia of power.
By many a soul, an earth-flung bolt is caught
And blown into a flamelet for an hour.

Through Hammurapi, legal justice grows;
The scourge of rabies falls by Pasteur's hand;
Burbank creates a larger, lovelier rose;
Gandhi brings in the outcast of the land.
What gift, for this great god, have you and I,
To offer at his shrine as he rides by?





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