Page:New poems and variant readings, Stevenson, 1918.djvu/75

Rh STRANGE ARE THE WAYS OF MEN

are the ways of men,

And strange the ways of God!

We tread the mazy paths

That all our fathers trod.

We tread them undismayed,

And undismayed behold

The portents of the sky,

The things that were of old.

The fiery stars pursue

Their course in heav'n on high;

And round the 'leaguered town,

Crest-tossing heroes cry.

Crest-tossing heroes cry;

And martial fifes declare

How small, to mortal minds,

Is merely mortal care.

And to the clang of steel

And cry of piercing flute

Upon the azure peaks

A God shall plant his foot:

A God in arms shall stand,

And seeing wide and far

The green and golden earth,

The killing tide of war,