Classic Poem

I SAW this in a place at the world's end,
When He was left alone without a friend:

From every side, from far and near they came,
The blind and battered and the lewd and lame,
The frightened people, and the helpless crew
Who hid in cellars, and the stragglers who
Dodged here and there in corners of the earth
Cursing the sun, and they who from their birth

Were lapped in madness, raved, and strode along,
Chaunting in fury to a flighty song
Their holy wrath: and all the hungry folk,
Who through the world had rummaged, yelped, and broke
To a stiff run, for vengeance was in view,
And every one knew what he had to do.

It was the Judgment Day; and so they sped
(These vagabonds who always had been dead),
And packed their multitudes into the space
Between two stars: a deep and hollow place,
Rolling immense, a swirl of blue and grey
Steeped out of eye-shot: so it ever lay
Swinging in whispers, prickling to a sound,
Till the wind's whimper, rolling round and round,
Jolted to thunder, or the dreary sigh
Of a dead man drummed madness on the sky.

There they were silent, every awful stare,
With a dumb grin, was lifting anywhere;
When sudden He came stately, marching fleet,
From the red sun, with fire about His feet,
And flaming brow. And as He walked, in fire,
Those million, million muzzles, lifted higher,
Stared at Him, grinned in fury, toned a yelp,
A vast malignant query, " Did you help? "
And at the sound the jangled spaces threw
Echo to echo, thunders bit and flew
Through deeper thunders, into such a bay
The Judge stood frightened, turned, and stole away.