Classic Poem

At last I have ceased repining, at last I accept my fate;
I have ceased to beat at the Portal, I have ceased to knock at the Gate;
I have ceased to work at the Puzzle, for the Secret has ended my search,
And I know that the Key is entrusted to never a creed nor church.

They have threatened with lakes of fire, they have threatened with fetters of hell;
They have offered me heights of heaven with their fields of asphodel;
But the Threat and the Bribe are useless if Reason be strong and stout,
And an honest man can never surrender an honest doubt.

The fables of hell and of heaven are but worn-out Christmas toys
To coax or to bribe or to frighten the grown-up girls and boys;
I have ceased to be an infant, I have travelled beyond their span—
It may do for women and children, but it never will do for a man.

They are all alike, these churches: Mohammedan, Christian, Parsee;
You are vile, you are curst, you are outcast, if you be not as they be;
But my Reason stands against them, and I go as it bids me go;
Its commands are as calls of Atrumpet, and I follow for weal or woe.

But oh! it is often cheerless, and oh! it is often chill,
And I often sigh to heaven as my path grows steep and still.
I have left behind my comrades, with their prattle and childish noise;
My boyhood now is behind me, with all of its broken toys!

Oh! that God of gods is glorious, the emperor of every land;
He carries the moon and the planets in the palm of His mighty hand;
He is girt with the belt of Orion, he is Lord of the suns and stars,
A wielder of constellations, of Canopus, Arcturus, and Mars!

I believe in Love and Duty, I believe in the True and Just:
I believe in the common kinship of everything born from dust.
I hope that the Right will triumph, that the sceptered Wrong will fall;
That Death will at last be defeated, that the Grave will not end all.

I believe in the martyrs and heroes who have died for the sake of Right;
And I promise, like them, to follow in my Reason's faithful light;
If my Reason errs in Judgment, I but honestly strive as I can;
If a God decrees my downfall, I shall stand it like a man.