"He tells us nothing that is new: He calls attention to the dew, The village street, the mountain view. "He preaches us the same old things: The same old truths, the same old strings He plays upon in all he sings: "That happiness is being good, That men are all a brotherhood -- Old truths our fathers understood; "That God has made no class nor clan, No rich nor poor -- a man's a man If red or white or black or tan; "That these the walls that now divide The humble home, the house of pride, Great God in death shall sweep aside; "That money does not make success, That genius is not great unless Employed for human happiness. "He teaches simples such as these, Truths children learned at mothers' knees, Old scriptural philosophies. "His sermons seem so trite and old; Why tell us things we have been told In volumes musty now with mould?" Well, God be thanked for one to preach The good old truths, who tries to teach The maxims of our fathers' speech. For still man lives and still man dies And still temptation 'round him lies That often shuts him from the skies. With all our wisdom, all our skill, The road of life is shadowed still -- We need God's truth to live God's will. For thoughtless women, wayward men, Must hear these truths today -- and then Tomorrow must be told again. He tells us nothing old and trite, But truths as new as stars of light God must rekindle every night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOPE (1) by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON IN LOVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TRIFLE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TWO POEMS FROM THE WAR: 2 by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH DOMESDAY BOOK: DR. TRACE TO THE CORONER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |