<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">The Recompense</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">God</span> made a Garden first for Man</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Where He and Man might walk together,</p><p class="line">Before the bitter days began</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And when 'twas always perfect weather;</p><p class="line">A Garden full of fruit and flowers,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The butterfly, the bee, the dew;</p><p class="line">Man had enough in those sweet bowers</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Before the old snake wriggled through.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But when poor Man was driven away,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Hobbled and sad, from those bright portals,</p><p class="line">When there was nothing more to say</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Between the stript unhappy mortals;</p><p class="line">When Eve went shivering in the wind,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With all her sweetness nipt by frost,</p><p class="line">God put it into Adam's mind</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To build a House; so all's not lost!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">'Twas built of clay and wattled boughs.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">So comfortable 'twas, the creeping</p><p class="line">Out of the rain into their House,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To dream of Eden in their sleeping.</p><p class="line">He taught them next to capture Fire,—</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The wild sprite of the roaring storm,</p><p class="line">And tether him to their desire</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Upon a hearthstone bright and warm.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet there was something incomplete;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They wept for their remembered blisses;</p><p class="line">Till God slipt something wondrous sweet</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Betwixt His anger and their kisses:</p><p class="line">The Woman shall make Home: He said:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With children, and the hearth-fires burning,</p><p class="line">And with her bosom for his bed</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">My Adam praise Me night and morning.</p></div></body></html> · Great War