Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/21

A voice fell past me like a plummet cast
   To fathom that unfathomable sea,
A voice austerely sad,—"At last, at last
   The measure of the earth's iniquity
   Brims God's great urn; at last it all must be
Poured out upon the earth in blood and tears
And raging fire, for years and years and years.

"The Churches are polluted,—let them fall
   And crush old errors underneath their weight;
The royal purples are a bloody pall
   To stifle Freedom,—rend them ere too late;
   The laws are silken meshes for the great
But iron nets to hold the poor and mean,—
Let them too perish . . . . But what next is seen?

"Because the priests were false, the shrines impure,
   Mankind in God Himself all faith have lost;
Because blood dyed old purples, they endure
   To walk all naked in the sun and frost;
   Because old laws the law of justice crost,
They would live henceforth without any law:
No loyal service, no revering awe!

"Who will go down amidst these desolations
   Of fire and blood and lunacies and woe,
To chant aloud to all the wildered nations
   Those heavenly truths no earth can overthrow,
   The changeless truths Eternal? Who will go
To preach the Gospel of our Lord above,
Chanting perpetually the law of Love?"