Page:Masque of the Edwards of England (1902).djvu/49

 King and Queens may come and may go,

Folk may grow fickle and nations old,

Last who rode in the royal show

Was she whose fame shall not grow cold,

For honesty, honour and truth don't die

As we that have known her, known her, known her,

We that have have known can testify.

TO THE CENTURY PROPHETIC.

Masquers we be, but a mumming we prophesy,

We watch and wait for thee, seer that art to be,

Poet that art to be, we wait for thee.

Thou that shalt synthesize, summing the century,

As through the lips of one sacred, inspiringly,

As did the Puritan, as did the Florentine,

Or as did he our own Elizabethan.

We look and long for thee singer that art to be,

Seer that art to be; we look for thee.

Strong in thy love and divine understanding,

Strong in thy sympathy, binding, uniting us,

Strong in the storm of thy verses inspiring us,

Strong in the great song of praise thou shalt sing to us!

Poet that art he, our souls look forth to thee,

We strive and seek for thee, poet for thee!

Thine be the mission, the passion, the sentiment,

Industry purified, life again unified,

Poverty passed away, science made purposeful,

Art the fulfilment of life again eloquent.

Thine to foresee, poet, poet that art to be,

Thine shall they be seer, thine shall they be!

Rede for the painter, the sculptor, the architect,

And every labourer, and every handicraft,

Singing the symbols concealed in material,

Singing creation and endless accomplishment.

Thine the strong music of militant comradeship

Firm lipped & swift, comprehending America;

Hoping, confirming, revealing Democracy,

Thine solidarity, thou cosmopolitan,

Even as Whitman conceived and aspired to thee,

We wait and watch for thee, poet to be.

We who are fragments of systems unsatisfied,

Echoes of prophecies, world-hopes that might have been,

Visions seen fruitlessly, dreams all unrealised,

Broken, divided, unnerved, and fragmentary,

We wait in awe for thee, poet that art to be,

Poet that art to be, meekly for thee.

Show us as parts of the One indivisible,

Bind us, unite us, inspire us, remodel us,

Make us what dreams would have made us, Utopian,

Once again unified, once again Catholic.

Champion that art to be: we strive and search for thee,

We call for thee, poet, we wait for thee!

Baptists to Christ are we, tentative, tentative,

Thine through the echoes the strong voice of leadership,

Thine the concluding voice, sombre, majestical,

Thine the young voice, fair and fresh to futurity.

Thou that shalt synthesize, summing the century,

Shape the new age, the creation that is to be,

Our birth cries come to thee, poet that art to be!

Masquers we be, but a mumming we prophesy,

Prophesy haltingly, dimly and falteringly,

Our birth cries come to thee, poet that art to be,

Poet that art to be, we wait, we watch for thee,

Dying we live, poet, we wait for thee.

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