POSTHUMOUS POEMS
III
Time and change and death made music as of life and strife and doom
When his lyric spell bade ope the graves of ages dead as dust.
Cain, a shadow like a sunrise clad in fire whose light was gloom,
Towered above the deepening deluge, crying on justice held unjust,
Whence his giant sons should find the world their throne become their tomb,
And a wider world of waters hide the strongholds of their trust.
Time and change and death made music as of life and strife and doom
When his lyric spell bade ope the graves of ages dead as dust.
Cain, a shadow like a sunrise clad in fire whose light was gloom,
Towered above the deepening deluge, crying on justice held unjust,
Whence his giant sons should find the world their throne become their tomb,
And a wider world of waters hide the strongholds of their trust.
Soiled with desert sand and lit with fire of wrath from heaven, the seer
Spake for Naboth slain the sentence of the judgment of the Lord:
Age on ruining age and year as rolling thunder crashed on year
Down the measures of the mighty song that glittered like a sword:
Truth and legend strange and fierce as truth or dreams of faith and fear
Made their lightnings one to crown it, flashed from stormy chord to chord.
Spake for Naboth slain the sentence of the judgment of the Lord:
Age on ruining age and year as rolling thunder crashed on year
Down the measures of the mighty song that glittered like a sword:
Truth and legend strange and fierce as truth or dreams of faith and fear
Made their lightnings one to crown it, flashed from stormy chord to chord.
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