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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CHANT SUNG IN DARKNESS, by HERBERT TRENCH Poet's Biography First Line: Though the fool - the old gainsayer Last Line: To raise them is for you. Subject(s): God; Justice; Questions | |||
I THOUGH the fool -- the old gainsayer -- The passionate inveigher Whose passion is a prayer To one beyond his view, Said, "Is He dumb? Defy, then! Art thou indignant? Die, then, Bowed down and battle-writhen, But never stoop to sue!" Yet Man, although he grieveth And the pride of him upheaveth Still in that God believeth, Still in a goal whereto Those heaven-plunging horses Whose neck no rein enforces, Unspent as from the sources Of light and life they flew, Sweep the earth-chariot. (Never Shall the Charioteer's endeavor Govern them -- Man for ever Must bide what they may do!) And though the breast maternal Of the stream of lights eternal Bears down a gorge nocturnal Our little raft and crew, And always wider, dimmer, The coasts recede and glimmer, And colder yet and grimmer Unfold to oceans new -- Not here my wonder halteth To trust Whom it exalteth, Not here my soul defaulteth To pay its worship due; Yet, yet it mounteth fearing Voices of darkness, rearing Challenges persevering That nothing can subdue: -- II "The evil and offenceless Thou smit'st, and both are senseless, Against thine eye defenseless The false man and the true; Our simplest, our sublimest, Our bravest and our primest, Are in thy hand who climbest The heavens without a clue; Crush these, the brazen-throated, But these, the self-devoted, The deep-loved and unnoted, Why dost Thou crush them too? Speak, Thou, who Earth evolvest And the globe of stars revolvest And the night of life dissolvest, Solve us this riddle too: -- Why to our young committing The faults of the unwitting Dost Thou award as fitting Irreparable rue? Is not Thy justice deathless? Why let ten thousand faithless, Wise and unclean, go scatheless But not the faithful few? Thy face in cloud enswathing Why visit'st Thou with scathing The child, the beast our plaything, And them that never knew?" III And God saith, If ye hear it, This weeping of the Spirit For the world which ye inherit, Do I not hear it too? Arise, and to your stations, Ye lighted living nations! These be my dark foundations -- To raise them is for you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest... |
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