"I met a man"

   I met a man when night was nigh,
   Who said, with shining face and eye
   Like Moses' after Sinai:-



   "I have seen the Moulder of Monarchies,
      Realms, peoples, plains and hills,
   Sitting upon the sunlit seas! -
   And, as He sat, soliloquies
Fell from Him like an antiphonic breeze
      That pricks the waves to thrills.
   "Meseemed that of the maimed and dead
      Mown down upon the globe, -
   Their plenteous blooms of promise shed
   Ere fruiting-time--His words were said,
Sitting against the western web of red
      Wrapt in His crimson robe.
   "And I could catch them now and then:
     --'Why let these gambling clans
   Of human Cockers, pit liege men
   From mart and city, dale and glen,
In death-mains, but to swell and swell again
      Their swollen All-Empery plans,
   "'When a mere nod (if my malign
      Compeer but passive keep)
   Would mend that old mistake of mine
   I made with Saul, and ever consign
All Lords of War whose sanctuaries enshrine
      Liberticide, to sleep?
   "'With violence the lands are spread
      Even as in Israel's day,
   And it repenteth me I bred
   Chartered armipotents lust-led
To feuds . . . Yea, grieves my heart, as then I said,
      To see their evil way!'
  --"The utterance grew, and flapped like flame,
      And further speech I feared;
   But no Celestial tongued acclaim,
   And no huzzas from earthlings came,
And the heavens mutely masked as 'twere in shame
      Till daylight disappeared."
Thus ended he as night rode high -
The man of shining face and eye,
Like Moses' after Sinai.
-

1916.