<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">PART I</h1><h1 align="" class="head">i</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">SPINNING in space, a filmy cloudlet shone</p><p class="line">Festooned and frayed,</p><p class="line">Like a torn braid</p><p class="line">Of woven pearls and silver--thin and wan</p><p class="line">As tenuous ghosts that in the saffron dawn</p><p class="line">Upon the sweltry banks of Acheron</p><p class="line">Swither and sway. And ever and anon</p><p class="line">Out of the margin of the mist there came</p><p class="line">Flurries of flame</p><p class="line">And drifts of scarlet scud,</p><p class="line">As if of glairy tears, and clotted blood,</p><p class="line">Together spun--</p><p class="line">Spindrift and spume of the vortiginous surge</p><p class="line">Of a sun-shattered sun,</p><p class="line">Around whose fiery wrack was furled the cloud,</p><p class="line">Like swaddling robes, or bridal veil, or shroud.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">ii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So seethed the cloud, and reeling from the gurge,</p><p class="line">Smelted and smoothened from the rough débris</p><p class="line">By the hot hands of Fire, the Thaumaturge,</p><p class="line">The Earth leapt free.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Around it, burned and boomed a plangent sea</p><p class="line">That ever by the cruel knotted scourge</p><p class="line">Of a wild crashing rain of crimson scree</p><p class="line">Was whipped to plashing whirls of purple foam.</p><p class="line">And ever lashing from its dædal dome</p><p class="line">There hissed a heavy hail of falling stars</p><p class="line">Whose flick upon the lava's filigree</p><p class="line">Made rosy scars.</p><p class="line">And ever from the coastal crust of slag</p><p class="line">Slipped candent cliff and burning crag</p><p class="line">Into the cauldron of the bubbling ore,</p><p class="line">And steamed and wallowed in the red fiords</p><p class="line">Like monstrous hordes</p><p class="line">Of snorting dragons weltering in gore,</p><p class="line">Stabbed in the loins with the long jaggèd swords</p><p class="line">Of the livid lightning. Yea, and evermore</p><p class="line">Came from volcano-throats the raucous roar</p><p class="line">Of lava and of thunder; and the shore</p><p class="line">Reverberated with the ponderous tide</p><p class="line">As the sun rose in reckless wrath and tore</p><p class="line">--Till the astounded stars heard the torn granite gride--</p><p class="line">The bossy, slaggy moon from the Earth's riven side.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">iii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Still the hoarse thunder bellowed, still the fire</p><p class="line">Moulded to its desire</p><p class="line">Mountain and swire,</p><p class="line">And precipice and dale,</p><p class="line">So porphyry pinnacle and granite spire</p><p class="line">Guttered and sagged like candles in a gale;</p><p class="line">And basalt towers</p><p class="line">Wilted like flowers</p><p class="line">In scorching showers</p><p class="line">Of radiant hail;</p><p class="line">And the crust moaned</p><p class="line">And groaned</p><p class="line">And rose and fell</p><p class="line">Like the hot surges in the heart of hell.</p><p class="line">But round the planet in ætherial space</p><p class="line">There lurked a frost that gripped it like a vice</p><p class="line">A frost so fierce could curdle flame to ice--</p><p class="line">The frost of nothingness that never knew</p><p class="line">A genial flush of warmth come burning through</p><p class="line">Its deadly limbus. In its dire embrace</p><p class="line">The furnaces of fire forgot to glow;</p><p class="line">And from the welkin dun,</p><p class="line">Unlighted by the sun,</p><p class="line">A clattering clinker fell of iron snow.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">iv</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And from the white becloudèd skies,</p><p class="line">Like scalding tears.</p><p class="line">From closèd eyes,</p><p class="line">Held shut by fears,</p><p class="line">Gripped tight by pain,</p><p class="line">There trickled through</p><p class="line">A drench of dew,</p><p class="line">An ooze of tepid rain,</p><p class="line">And down the smouldering hills,</p><p class="line">Gather, by slow accrue,</p><p class="line">A leash of little rills,</p><p class="line">Amber and blue.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">v</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And rills became a stream,</p><p class="line">And streams to rivers grew,</p><p class="line">And in a cloud of steam</p><p class="line">Plunged madly out of view</p><p class="line">Down precipices steep</p><p class="line">Into a chasm deep</p><p class="line">Trenchèd and torn</p><p class="line">In the Earth's wounded side</p><p class="line">By the phrenetic tide</p><p class="line">When the white moon was born;</p><p class="line">Till, lo, in creeks and bights and bays,</p><p class="line">Clad in a shining rainbow haze,--</p><p class="line">A diapase</p><p class="line">Of chrysoprase,</p><p class="line">And lapis-lazuli,--</p><p class="line">There dreamed and gleamed,</p><p class="line">And played and swayed,</p><p class="line">And surged and sang <em>the sea!</em></p></div><h1 align="" class="head">vi</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Thus was our planet wrought by arts of war,</p><p class="line">By spear</p><p class="line">Of Tyr,</p><p class="line">By thunderbolt of Thor;</p><p class="line">Thus did granitic isle and iron floe.</p><p class="line">Welded and rivetted by hammer blow.</p><p class="line">Assume the semblance of a solid Earth,—-</p><p class="line">Become a womb,</p><p class="line">A cradle and a tomb.</p><p class="line">Where wondrous things had burial and birth.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">vii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The lustral fires burned low,</p><p class="line">The lurid glow</p><p class="line">Of the live lava dimmed and died away,</p><p class="line">Only betimes an ember, burning slow,</p><p class="line">Gleamed in the ashes grey,</p><p class="line">Like an eye glazed and dull</p><p class="line">In the worm-nibbled skull</p><p class="line">Of some dead beast of prey</p><p class="line">And softly round the ledges of the land</p><p class="line">The surf went fumbling like a lover's hand</p><p class="line">Feeling with wistful wonder</p><p class="line">A living heart thereunder</p><p class="line">That beat and throbbed athro' the silver sand;</p><p class="line">Or kneading clay and lime</p><p class="line">Into a tawny slime</p><p class="line">That in the swaying motion of the tide</p><p class="line">Quivered like some sea-monster's wrinkled hide.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">viii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And, lo, upon the tawny briny mud</p><p class="line">Flickered a smouldering bud--</p><p class="line">A spark of green,--</p><p class="line">A little speck, a tiny spore,</p><p class="line">That on the vast savannahs of the shore</p><p class="line">Was hardly to be seen.</p><p class="line">Not tinier the dust a zephyr blows</p><p class="line">From the new-ripened anther of a rose;</p><p class="line">Yet in its core</p><p class="line">Were hidden more</p><p class="line">Wisdom and love,</p><p class="line">Beauty and grace,</p><p class="line">Than all the suns and all the stars of space.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">ix</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who in the store</p><p class="line">Of helpless atoms huddled on the shore</p><p class="line">Could have foreseen,</p><p class="line">Fore-guessed, foretold</p><p class="line">The vastitude of vernal green,</p><p class="line">The granaries of autumn gold?--</p><p class="line">Who in the voiceless atoms on the beach</p><p class="line">Could have foreheard</p><p class="line">The singing of a bird</p><p class="line">The mighty harmonies of human speech?--</p><p class="line">Could have foreknown</p><p class="line">The living hands of flesh, and blood, and bone,</p><p class="line">That from that little greenery would reach ?--</p><p class="line">Who from the past</p><p class="line">Could have forecast</p><p class="line">The evolution of the future vast,</p><p class="line">And guessed that in the tiny cell,</p><p class="line">Were love, and hate, and heaven, and hell.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">x</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Silently was the work of life begun;</p><p class="line">Upon the fairy anvil beat the sun;</p><p class="line">Into the elfin furnace rushed the air</p><p class="line">Forging shapes weak and strong, and foul and fair,</p><p class="line">While unseen Death and unsurmisèd Love</p><p class="line">Stood watching there</p><p class="line">Ready to test and prove,</p><p class="line">To kill and spare;</p><p class="line">And by and by the green began to move</p><p class="line">To breathe and feed, and swim and creep,</p><p class="line">To sprawl across the sand, and voyage o'er the deep,</p><p class="line">And by and by the sea grew white with swarms</p><p class="line">Of flimsy forms.</p><p class="line">Bits of soft living slime,</p><p class="line">Prisoned in shells of lime</p><p class="line">Most delicately built.</p><p class="line">Went swimming to and fro,</p><p class="line">Or, dying, fell like snow.</p><p class="line">Luting the ocean floor with oozy silt.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xi</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And now on land life was no longer dumb:</p><p class="line">Out of the ferns and moss, across the sky,</p><p class="line">Insects with gauzy wings began to fly,</p><p class="line">And buzz and hum,</p><p class="line">And in the grass, crickets began to try</p><p class="line">Their scrannel violins of wing and thigh;</p><p class="line">Anon, in marshes like the bogs of Styx</p><p class="line">Uncanny things half bird, half bat,</p><p class="line">And monstrous reptile shapes bloated or gaunt,--</p><p class="line">Atlantosaur, and archæopteryx,</p><p class="line">And dinothere, and labyrinthodont,</p><p class="line">And pterodactyl, monstrous things begat.</p><p class="line">And evermore Death came, and laughed, and slew.</p><p class="line">And patient Life and Birth bent to their task anew.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Death wrought with divers tools. Unwearièd</p><p class="line">Across the warp of life that wimpled red</p><p class="line">The lightning flashed, shooting a livid thread</p><p class="line">Like signatures of the undying dead--</p><p class="line">Through the half-woven tapestries of doom;</p><p class="line">And the mephitic breath and mordant fume</p><p class="line">Of the hot-throated craters scorched and charred</p><p class="line">The living lengthening web; and through the gloom</p><p class="line">Some tempest howling shrill, and breathing hard</p><p class="line">Frayed Life's unfinished fringes; and disease,</p><p class="line">Nibbled the fairy fabric as the seas</p><p class="line">Nibble their rocky headlands. Yet, unmarred</p><p class="line">Unscathed, unscarred,</p><p class="line">Life ever wove in carpel and in womb</p><p class="line">Imperishable webs of flesh and bloom.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xiii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Crumpled the cooling crust, and the deep ocean bed</p><p class="line">Luted with lime and slime of creatures dead</p><p class="line">--That snow of death through the long æons shed--</p><p class="line">Was puckered into marble mountain heights</p><p class="line">--Himálayas and Alps, and Dolomites--</p><p class="line">Where eagles had their eyries, and once more</p><p class="line">Subsided and became the ocean floor;</p><p class="line">And fire piled high sierras, and the rains</p><p class="line">Wore them down inch by inch to desert plains;</p><p class="line">And inch by inch the coral islands grew,</p><p class="line">Like daisy garlands, in the ocean blue,</p><p class="line">And inch by inch the glaciers ground away</p><p class="line">The granite boulders into boulder-clay;</p><p class="line">Yet never ceased the seethe of life, and still</p><p class="line">Birth bore new forms faster than death could kill.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xiv</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So the fierce æons ran,</p><p class="line">Till with exalted head</p><p class="line">Thronèd upon the dead,</p><p class="line">There stood immortal man--</p><p class="line">Fruitage of all the tilth</p><p class="line">And spilth</p><p class="line">Of fire--</p><p class="line">Following dreams and driven by desire.</p><p class="line">Through the gate of breath,</p><p class="line">In the arms of Death,</p><p class="line">By the path of Love, from the pit of shame,</p><p class="line">With a fiery past,</p><p class="line">And a future vast,</p><p class="line">To the world he came.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xv</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Spawn he was in the steamy mire,</p><p class="line">Fins he was in a primal sea,</p><p class="line">Wings he was in the feathered choir,</p><p class="line">Or ever he came a man to be.</p><p class="line">Of dead the mountain peaks are built,</p><p class="line">Of dead the soil, of dead the silt--</p><p class="line">The dead that led the way to him</p><p class="line">Through shell and claw to brain and limb.</p><p class="line">In every thought, in every part,</p><p class="line">Made is he of a million slain,</p><p class="line">Blood of the dead is in his heart,</p><p class="line">Dreams of the dead are in his brain.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xvi</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Made at such infinite and fiery cost,</p><p class="line">Wrought with such delicate and deadly art,</p><p class="line">--Spirit and heart--</p><p class="line">Out of things born, and buried, found and lost--</p><p class="line">With all the energies of fire and frost</p><p class="line">Of wind and flood</p><p class="line">Of life and death</p><p class="line">Tempestuous in his tidal blood</p><p class="line">Combustive in his burning breath--</p><p class="line">With unconsumed Eternity behind,</p><p class="line">With unconceived Eternity before,</p><p class="line">Man, the custodian of immortal mind,</p><p class="line">Stood with bewildered senses at the door</p><p class="line">Of darkling wisdom. Round him still was blore</p><p class="line">Of tempest and of furnace. From the peak</p><p class="line">The purple pennons of volcano-reek,</p><p class="line">That the fire tossed and tore</p><p class="line">Streamed in the sky an omen and ostent</p><p class="line">Of bloody battle, and belligerent</p><p class="line">He heard the salvos of the thunder speak</p><p class="line">And crash</p><p class="line">And roar.</p><p class="line">He watched the lightning's white stiletto flash</p><p class="line">And stab and gash</p><p class="line">The bosom of the darkness as a fiend</p><p class="line">Might stab a swarthy woman lying dead;</p><p class="line">He saw the forest like a cornfield gleaned</p><p class="line">By the white sickles of a surging flood;</p><p class="line">And even the gorgeous sky of gold and red</p><p class="line">Seemed a God's brazen byrny oozing blood.</p><p class="line">Yea and he saw</p><p class="line">How talon, tooth, and claw</p><p class="line">Waged internecine combat, and he, too.</p><p class="line">Seeing that life was war, went forth and slew.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xvii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Naked and weak,</p><p class="line">He flaked a flint, and strung a hickory bow,</p><p class="line">And struck a spark, and in a mountain gorge</p><p class="line">Hammered a spear, upon a granite forge</p><p class="line">With cunning blow.</p><p class="line">And spoored the mammoth o'er the prairie bleak,</p><p class="line">And faced and fought it to its overthrow;</p><p class="line">And stabbed the bear upon the glacial peak,</p><p class="line">And clubbed the walrus on the drifting floe,</p><p class="line">Till the warm blood ran crimson to the creek,</p><p class="line">Steaming upon the snow.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xviii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">No fear could blear his sight, no woe could blanch</p><p class="line">His vivid blood. The glacial avalanche</p><p class="line">Like a white Juggernaut rode down the land</p><p class="line">Trampling the forests with a madman's lust,</p><p class="line">Braying the iron-hearted rocks to dust,</p><p class="line">And drift, and sand.</p><p class="line">And famine, and fatigue, and cold, and pain</p><p class="line">Cramped his fierce heart and froze his fervid breath</p><p class="line">Yet still he conquered. At his feet in death</p><p class="line">Writhed monsters could have crunched him 'tween their teeth</p><p class="line">Like a ripe berry, or a cob of grain,</p><p class="line">But there he stood with all the world beneath,</p><p class="line">A pigmy creature with a giant brain.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">xix</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet came no peace. Still in his heart was strife;</p><p class="line">A far fore-seeing Fate</p><p class="line">Using his pride and Hate,</p><p class="line">Wrought at the web of life;</p><p class="line">And driven still</p><p class="line">By his own passionate will</p><p class="line">Upon a bloody way,</p><p class="line">He seized his sword his brother man to slay.</p><p class="line">Nation slew nation: horde abolished horde.</p><p class="line">Vengeance and famine swept whole tribes away,</p><p class="line">And still there sped the spear and flashed the sword,</p><p class="line">Carving the human clay;</p><p class="line">And still life came of death, and joy of pain.</p><p class="line">And still, as Man his fellow-mortals slew,</p><p class="line">Like a red rose, watered with bloody rain,</p><p class="line">The human spirit grew,--</p><p class="line">Grew in the depth and height of its desire,</p><p class="line">Grew as the Earth had grown amid the fire.</p></div></body></html> · Great War