Classic Poem

A POEM ON THE UNION OF THE OCEANS AT PANAMA

Espousal of the vast, void seas,
Where God's spirit moved upon
The waters ere the burst of dawn
Is of creation's majesties —
God's six days' work was not quite done
Till man made these two seas as one.

The piteous story of men drowned,
The beauteous story of the dove,
And olive leaf and God's great love
Still lives wherever man is found,
And still His rainbow banners rise
Above the cloud-embattled skies.

Behold, the gaudy ships of Spain
With cross-hilt sword dared distant seas,
Dared death and the Antipodes,
To find the farthest, utmost main.
They found it — and such ruin laid
That e'en dusk Paynim were dismayed.

They found it, found the vast void seas
Where God had said, " Let there be light. "
They turned God's morning into night
With cross-bone banner to the breeze —
Their trust was pike and sword and shot
And all was as if God were not.

They made a trade of war. They laid
Such tribute in their greed for gold
On helpless heathen, young and old,
That slavery grew a common trade.
They built great ships, they said all seas
Be but the passive serfs of these.

They gathered as in one great breath
Huge battleships of all the seas,
With not one note of love or peace —
Huge isles of steel all rank with death,
Death manned and bannered, gold on gold,
A thousand slaves in each dark hold.
Which shall prevail, mad men of strife
With steel-built walls, shot, shell and sword,
Or loving angels of the Lord
With peace and love and precious life?
" Peace, peace on earth, goodwill to men, "
God's angels sang, but what since then?

Two thousand years of doubts and fears
Since angels sang God's message clear
To men who could not choose but hear —
And still man's tyranny and tears,
And still great decks of guns and gold —
A thousand slaves in each dark hold!

They sailed, they met at Panama,
A thousand bannered battleships,
With great guns loaded to the lips,
To laugh, to mock God's love and law;
When lo! a peace upon them lay
Like to that holy natal day.

And men all mute with wonderment,
Famed martial men sword-girt and bold,
Looked up and suddenly — behold!
The boundless heavens sown and blent
With such soft beauteous blaze of light
As shepherds knew that natal night.

The love-lit Southern Cross o'er-spread
The heavens as that one great star
That led the wise men from afar
To find that humble tavern shed
Where Mary Mother waited them
Within the walls of Bethlehem.

Now great men garmented with gold
Forgot their pride, forgot their state,
Their love of war, their piteous hate,
And called their mute slaves from the hold.
The cross of stars gave forth such light
They could but see and know the right.

The star-built cross stood out so clear
Great sword-girt men forgot to say
But silent, crossed themselves to pray,
And there leaned, listening, to hear
His angels sing as on that morn
The Christ at Bethlehem was born.

The seas lay like a harvest land;
White ships were lilies stately, fair,
White peace lay on them like a prayer,
Vast peace poured down so bless'd, so bland —
The rich unfolding of a rose
That only dewy morning knows.

'Tis done! The seven seas are one
Without the rending of a sheet,
Without one signal of defeat,
Without the firing of a gun.
Go home, you useless battleships,
Nor open once your iron lips.
Mark this! God's spirit moved upon
The waters e'er the world was made.
Mark this! Christ said, " Be not afraid. "
Mark this! Henceforth no sword is drawn.
Mark this! The Deluge, Galilee —
All waters are but one great sea!

My brave Evangels, forth and preach
The love of beauty, cloud or clod,
The love that leads to love of God,
The God in all, the good in each.
For God has said of weed or wood,
" Behold, it all is very good. "

Teach man the love of man and teach
The grace of Faith, Hope, Charity,
The bare brown earth, the blossomed tree.
To hear these high priests preach and preach
In sweet persistent harmony —
What chorus like the wind-kissed tree?

Is man to be the last on earth
To slay his kind, to rend and tear?
Behold the monstrous great cave bear
Has passed, her huge paws nothing worth,
With all her kindred beast of prey,
Shall man be last, so less than they?

Let there be light, the light that was
That first, vast void and voiceless day
When God pushed darkness far away
And spake the first creative cause.
Let there be light, the light of love,
The lift of sun-lit boughs above.

Come, let us consecrate the trees
To God, with neither creed nor rule.
Each bough to be a vestibule
Broad open, breezy as the seas,
A song, a sermon, in each leaf —
His birds they are so wisely brief.

God loves the man who loves a tree,
The plumed tree " pleasant to the sight. "
His birds sing on in sweet delight,
Low voiced and ever pleasantly,
Of Him who rears it from the seed
As next to God in word and deed.

And he who plants a stony steep
Or wards some wooded, watered glade.
Where man may not make them afraid,
The while they nest or clucking creep
The tall, green, fragrant, growing sod,
They sense in partnership with God.

To hear the chant of topmost trees
That lord Sierra's silent steep,
When earth and sky are hushed in sleep,
Is heeding heaven's mysteries,
So deeper than the song of seas
And sweeter than man's harmonies.
I beg, I plead for Light, " more Light. "
I think if man might only see
The beauty, glory, majesty
Of but the humblest plant in sight,
He then might learn to lift his eyes
Up, up to the majestic skies;

And seeing there the peace of all,
The silent, happy harmony,
He then might pause a breath and he
Might let his glad eyes restful fall
To earth, and in each fragrant sod
First sense the living soul of God.

And seeing good, of all a part,
Some tithe of good, but yet the seed
Of greater things in word and deed;
He then might take man to his heart
And lead him loving into light
From out his narrow walls of night.

My brave Evangels, pity hate!
God's pity for such fellowkind,
The blind who lead the doubly blind,
God's pity for such piteous state!
Man is not wicked, man is weak —
He smites, turn then the other cheek.

The morning stars forever sing
From out the awful arch of night:
" Let there be Light, let there be Light,
God's Light, forever pitying! "
Poor man made blind with haste and hate,
Who will not see God's open gate!

My swordless, brave Evangelist,
Lead forth, lead up the shining way
Saint Paul, that blest, immortal day,
Uprose from out the blinding mist,
The kingliest figure man may see
This side the Cross of Calvary.

And what, when red swords rust and rust
And glittering ploughshares greet the sun?
Ah me, what deed shall then be done —
What worlds of valor, duty, trust —
What worlds of thought, what unknown seas
Of shoreless, deep discoveries!

When man shall lift his face and look
Straight in at heaven's opened door,
What courage to explore, explore
And read God's beauteous star-strewn book,
What songs of conquest, sea and air,
When man shall truly do and dare!

What are the stars for, tell me, man?
I say He made each one, that they,
Bright stars, or dimmest Milky Way,
Are peopled to His will and plan;
Behold each street of stars is fair
And peopled with His perfect care.

No, nature wastes not one brief breath:
She knows no void, unpeopled place.
Then tell me not that yon vast space
Is voiceless as the doors of death,
That all is but a desert where
His stars stretch upward as a stair.

Believe it not. As well believe
That the wise Vestal Virgins bore
Brown waters from wild Tiber's shore
Unto their shrine in open sieve.
As well believe white marble shed
Red blood the while prone Caesar bled.

Columbus of the cobalt blue,
Rise up and pierce thy chartless main,
Bring glory, bring glad news again
As you were wont of old to do:
Bring news of new worlds while men scoff —
Yon worlds we see but know not of.

Fare forth in Faith, devoted, fond,
Forgetful of the mocking shore —
Explore, explore and still explore —
Beyond, beyond and still beyond:
You could not see one dimmest speck
Of Indies from your Nina's deck.

Yet here above all brooding night,
Lo, every street of heaven strewn
With worlds far brighter thanour own,
And each as some brave beacon light; —
Fare forth and light us up the way
To Light, to Light and endless Day.

Fare forth above earth's urge and roar —
The morning stars sang at earth's dawn —
The morning stars they still sing on —
Fare forth and hear the stars once more
Sing as they sang to light unfurled
That primal morning of the world.

The while you pass high heaven's door
And voyage on so far, so far
You speak souls of that utmost star
And still explore, explore, explore,
Then back to earth; then death shall be
No more man's nightmare mystery.

Then shall we know serene, secure,
Of scenes beyond the set of sun —
That life is but a play begun
That death is but a change of scene,
A night of rest, 'neath rose and bay
With bright morn but a breath away.
The while brave men all unafraid
Shall conquer elements and space
And speak tall dim forms face to face
And find out why the stars were made:
Aye find out whether beck — what shores
Beyond the sea-girt, gray Azores.

Yea, these the victories of Peace,
The priceless victories to be
When men forsake their Polar seas
And dare God's door in rivalry:
When mind shall master force ten-fold,
And fear be as a tale that's told.