Part 8 (1/2)

Oh ye who hold the written clue To all save all unwritten things, And, half a league behind, pursue The accomplished Fact with flouts and flings, Look! To your knee your baby brings The oldest tale since Earth began-- The answer to your worryings _'Once on a time there was a Man.'_

He, single-handed, met and slew Magicians, Armies, Ogres, Kings.

He lonely 'mid his doubting crew-- 'In all the loneliness of wings'-- He fed the flame, he filled the springs, He locked the ranks, he launched the van Straight at the grinning Teeth of Things.

_'Once on a time there was a Man.'_

The peace of shocked Foundations flew Before his ribald questionings.

He broke the Oracles in two, And bared the paltry wires and strings.

He headed desert wanderings, He led his soul, his cause, his clan A little from the ruck of Things.

_'Once on a time there was a Man.'_

Thrones, Powers, Dominions block the view With episodes and underlings-- The meek historian deems them true Nor heeds the song that Clio sings-- The simple central truth that stings The mob to boo, the priest to ban; _Things never yet created things-- 'Once on a time there was a Man.'_

A bolt is fallen from the blue.

A wakened realm full circle swings Where Dothan's dreamer dreams anew Of vast and farborne harvestings; And unto him an Empire clings That grips the purpose of his plan.

My Lords, how think you of these things?

_Once--in our time--is there a Man?_

THE BENEFACTORS

_Ah! What avails the cla.s.sic bent And what the cultured word, Against the undoctored incident That actually occurred?_

_And what is Art whereto we press Through paint and prose and rhyme-- When Nature in her nakedness Defeats us every time?_

It is not learning, grace nor gear, Nor easy meat and drink, But bitter pinch of pain and fear That makes creation think.

When in this world's unpleasing youth Our G.o.d-like race began, The longest arm, the sharpest tooth, Gave man control of man;

Till, bruised and bitten to the bone And taught by pain and fear, He learned to deal the far-off stone, And poke the long, safe spear.

So tooth and nail were obsolete As means against a foe, Till, bored by uniform defeat, Some genius built the bow.

Then stone and javelin proved as vain As old-time tooth and nail, Ere, spurred anew by fear and pain, Man fas.h.i.+oned coats of mail.

Then was there safety for the rich And danger for the poor, Till someone mixed a powder which Redressed the scale once more.

Helmet and armour disappeared With sword and bow and pike, And, when the smoke of battle cleared, All men were armed alike....

And when ten million such were slain To please one crazy king, Man, schooled in bulk by fear and pain, Grew weary of the thing;

And, at the very hour designed, To enslave him past recall, His tooth-stone-arrow-gun-shy mind Turned and abolished all.

_All Power, each Tyrant, every Mob Whose head has grown too large, Ends by destroying its own job And earns its own discharge._

_And Man, whose mere necessities Move all things from his path, Trembles meanwhile at their decrees, And deprecates their wrath!_

THE DEAD KING

(EDWARD VII.)