Classic Poem

If God had known,
When in the seething murk
He bound the waters wild,
And hung the skies before Him for a veil,
Two souls should yearn and catch a glimpse and fail,
Strive in the gray, till passion had grown stale;
Oh, would He then have smiled
Upon His work?

If God had known,
Before His dream gave birth,
To moon and star, flame-swayed,
How this frail lad, chained far from cloud and sky,
Should, for a spoken word, in darkness die,
A lad of wind and light, with laughing eye;
Oh, would God then have made
The fruitful earth?

If He had known,
In the long starless night,
Before the first dawn shed
Its gleam on cloud and wave in chaos rolled,
That one — a child — an instant's winged gold,
Should for her body's hunger thus be sold;
Oh, would God then have said,
" Let there be light " ?