Page:The Statues in the Block and Other Poems (1881).djvu/44

38 For traders who feed on and foster the complex life; For the shrewd and the selfish who plan and keep; For the heirs who squander the hoard that bears The face of the king, and the blood of the serf, And the curse of the darkened souls!

O Christ! and O Christ! In thy name the law! In thy mouth the mandate! In thy loving hand the whip! They have taken thee down from thy cross and sent thee to scourge the people; They have shod thy feet with spikes and jointed thy dead knees with iron, And pushed thee, hiding behind, to trample the poor dumb faces!

The spheres make music in space. They swing Like fiery cherubim on their paths, circling their suns,