Classic Poem

As a little child winking in its cradle,
I gaze at the roof of wonder which space
Has put over me;
Forever beyond my finger-reach,
Inaccessible; past my comprehension.
I do not seek to control the stars.
Yet I seek to control the soul of my brother
Which also is inaccessible,
Beyond my comprehension.
I find no flaw in the marching of the worlds,
The gathering of dew or raging of the sea;
Nor in glow-worms, which, though they bear
Their lamps humbly, are as perfect
As the sky-flooding moon.
Yet I, who have not the light
Of a glow-worm, would instruct my Mother.
More wise than the Infinite I would by force
Govern my brother who only seeks
To live his life, peaceably, also as I insist upon mine.
That way comes the death of a people.
I look upon rivers which roll
Boulders from the mountains
And carry the wreckage of Time.
Though they obliterate a city,
Shall that impeach their flowing?
Carvers of eternal channels, levelers of hills,
Jubilantly they toss the sun in their hands,
Bearing poppies and wheat to the goddesses
In the meadows.
Because sailors sink in the ocean
And throw up their arms to the sky in vain
Shall the moving battlements of the sea be fixed?
Or the winds sleep forever?
Because we lift our frightened hands
To a mocking firmament shall the Earth
Cease from her labor,
Or the chariots of the stars be stayed?
Out of destruction Nature brings continually
Changing life; wrecking the old to newer beauty;
But the wrecks of Man are wrecks of the soul,
He cherishes them. He delights in ugliness.