Page:The Poet in the Desert.djvu/66



Last link between the unvisioned Future and the

unknown Past. Back to that dim time when creation was, And the young stars danced new in their glory ; When giant lizards swam on sunset-seas And leviathans crushed through the ferny forests ; On to that time when man shall be attuned Unto the harmony called celestial, And shall live perfectly, as the stars Walk their eternal paths, nor ever stumble. Birth, echo of Eternity ; Earth's purest purity.

POET: The latest note in Nature's passional.

XI.

POET: I am a reaper in disordered fields.

TRUTH: You reap a carrion harvest.

POET: Tormenting pain ; unsatisfied longing ; A killing hunger of the body And a killing hunger of the soul.

TRUTH: Hate, despair, anxiety, drunkenness; crime; degradation.

POET: As a reaper gathers his sheaves, I gather the jails, the almshouses, The churches, the state-houses ; The palaces of the idle rich ; The filthy nests of the debased poor ; Pale faces, sunken cheeks ; staring eyes ; Thin arms, stretched up for bread ;

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