Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/244

 218 EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

��CASSANDRA

I HEARD one who said : " Verily,

What word have I for children here ?

Your Dollar is your only Word, The wrath of It your only fear.

"You build it altars tall enough To make you see, but you are blind ;

You cannot leave it long enough To look before you or behind.

" When Reason beckons you to pause, You laugh and say that you know best ;

But what it is you know, you keep As dark as ingots in a chest.

" You laugh and answer, ' We are young ;

O leave us now, and let us grow.' — Not asking how much more of this

Will Time endure or Fate bestow.

"Because a few complacent years Have made your peril of your pride,

Think you that you are to go on Forever pampered and untried ?

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