Page:The Poet in the Desert.djvu/28

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TRUTH: Behold the gowned priests, the preachers. Somber is their garb, And their teaching is somber. In their ignorance they preach love with their lips and

rejoice in force in their hearts ; they think their will is

the will of God, and by law they would change the

foundations of the earth. Their eyes raised to heaven, see nothing ; And their mouths are filled with noise. They are a flock of crows which tear up the sprouting

corn Before it reaches the light, And suck the egg before it has wings.

POET: They affect a garb of Darkness, And their souls are clouded in night.

TRUTH: Each sees his narrow shadow, and thinks it is God. But is blind to the handwriting of the buds, The teaching of the little calves ; Deaf to the instruction of the birds. And hears not the sermons of the Seasons. They refuse to drink from Nature's cup ; But are swollen in their own conceit. So that they will not drink from the same chalice With the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.

POET: In their ignorance, they cry "Agitators" against those Who stand upon the street-corners, saying : "Go to, now, ye rich men ; weep and howl, "For your miseries which shall come upon ye. "For your gold and silver is cankered, "Behold the hire of the laborers which have reaped down

your fields, "Which is of you kept back by fraud crieth :

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