Page:Poems (1915) G K Chesterton.djvu/139



HE old earth keepeth her watch the same,

Alone in a voiceless void doth stand,

Her orange flowers in her bosom flame,

Her gold ring in her hand.

The surfs of the long gold-crested morns

Break ever more at her great robe's hem,

And evermore come the bleak moon-horns,

But she keepeth not watch for them.

She keepeth her watch through the æon,

But the heart of her groweth not old,

For the peal of the bridegroom's pæans,

And the tale she once was told.

The nations shock and the cities reel,

The empires travail and rive and rend,

And she looks on havoc and smoke and steel,

And knoweth it is not the end.

The faiths may choke and the powers despair,

The powers re-arise and the faiths renew,

She is only a maiden, waiting there,

For the love whose word is true.

She keepeth her watch through the æons,

But the heart of her groweth not old,