Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/103

 The all-seeing sun shines on unheeding,
 * In the night shines the unruffled moon,

Though on earth brute myriads, preying, bleeding,
 * Put creation harshly out of tune.

Cried I, turning to the shrouded figure—
 * "Oh, in mercy veil this cruel strife!

Sanguinary orgies which disfigure
 * The green ways of labyrinthine life.

From the needs and greeds of primal passion,
 * From the serpent's track and lion's den,

To the world our human hands did fashion,
 * Lead me to the kindly haunts of men."

And through fields of corn we passed together,
 * Orange golden in the brooding heat,

Where brown reapers in the harvest weather
 * Cut ripe swathes of downward rustling wheat.

In the orchards dangling red and yellow,
 * Clustered fruit weighed down the bending sprays;