Poems of Purpose — What They Saw

WHAT THEY SAW

_Sad man_, _Sad man_, _tell me_, _pray_, _What did you see to-day_?

I saw the unloved and unhappy old, waiting for slow delinquent death to come;

Pale little children toiling for the rich, in rooms where sunlight is ashamed to go;

The awful almshouse, where the living dead rot slowly in their hideous open graves.

And there were shameful things.

Soldiers and forts, and industries of death, and devil-ships, and loud-winged devil-birds, All bent on slaughter and destruction.

These and yet more shameful things mine eyes beheld: Old men upon lascivious conquest bent, and young men living with no thought of God, And half-clothed women puffing at a weed, aping the vices of the underworld, Engrossed in shallow pleasures and intent on being barren wives.

These things I saw.

(How God must loathe His earth!

) _Glad man_, _Glad man_, _tell me_, _pray_.

_What did you see to-day_?

I saw an agèd couple, in whose eyes Shone that deep light of mingled love and faith, Which makes the earth one room of paradise, And leaves no sting in death.

I saw vast regiments of children pour, Rank after rank, out of the schoolroom door By Progress mobilised.

They seemed to say: ‘Let ignorance make way.

We are the heralds of a better day.

’ I saw the college and the church that stood For all things sane and good.

I saw God’s helpers in the shop and slum Blazing a path for health and hope to come, And True Religion, from the grave of creeds, Springing to meet man’s needs.

I saw great Science reverently stand And listen for a sound from Border-land, No longer arrogant with unbelief— Holding itself aloof— But drawing near, and searching high and low For that complete and all-convincing proof Which shall permit its voice to comfort grief, Saying, ‘We know.

’ I saw fair women in their radiance rise And trample old traditions in the dust.

Looking in their clear eyes, I seemed to hear these words as from the skies: ‘He who would father our sweet children must Be worthy of the trust.

’ Against the rosy dawn, I saw unfurled The banner of the race we usher in, The supermen and women of the world, Who make no code of sex to cover sin;

Before they till the soil of parenthood, They look to it that seed and soil are good.

And I saw, too, that old, old sight, and best— Pure mothers, with dear babies at the breast.

These things I saw.

(How God must love His earth!

)