Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WORK-GOD, by E. LYTTLETON FOX



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WORK-GOD, by                    
First Line: From the iciest bergs of the northland
Last Line: At the step of the work-god's shrine.
Subject(s): Yale University


FROM the iciest bergs of the Northland
Mid the realms of eternal snow
To the placid streams of an Eden
Where the Regia lilies blow;
From the East, where the Sultan's millions
Bow down at the muezzin's call,
To the West, where the ringing hammers
Forever rise and fall;
Wherever the Four Winds journey,
Wherever the Earth's brown face
Is mottled and blotched and teeming
With the Ants of the Human Race,
Wherever Man's Love of Conquest
Has led Man's Foot to stray,
Lord over his Hands and the Sweat of his Brow
The Work-god holds his sway.

He bides in the heat-swept foundry
Mid the breath of the molten steel
And guides the naked striking-arm
With a touch it cannot feel.
He enters the soul of the Artist
With Nature's beauties rife,
And lo, the Painted Bosom
Heaves with the Breath of Life.
He stands at the Seaman's elbow
When the lightning's fitful gleam
Lays bare the teeth of the Sisters Three
And pales the Home Light's beam.
He touches the brain of the Statesman
Charged with a nation's cares,
And clears the eye, and clams the mind,
That guard the State's affairs.

The creeds of Mohammed and Buddha
May be marked by a race or a clime;
Their beginnings and ends are known by Men,
And are pricked on the Chart of Time.
But behold the Creed of the Work-God
Is the Creed of Forever and Aye;
It began with the World's Creation,
It will end with the Judgment Day.
'Twas the Creed of the Grecian galley slave
As he strained at the ashen oar;
'Tis Creed to-day of the engineer
When the thundering drive-wheels roar.
It heeds not Race, nor Color,
Nor Birth nor Boundary Line,
For the Yankee is kin to the Malay
At the step of the Work-god's Shrine.





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