Classic Poem

God's chastisement is this and heavy curse:
That you shall cast away your own live heart,
Wring out your sacred tears beside all waters
And string them on the first false thread of light,
And pour your spirit into alien marble,
And in the stranger's rock entomb your soul.
While still the rav'ner's teeth are in your flesh,
Your soul too shall you fling to him for food.
And you shall build him Pithom, aye, and Ramses,
With living bricks — your own and children's children.
And when the child-soul cries from out the building,
The sound shall die away before it reach you.
If one among them grow a strong-winged eagle,
For ever shall you scare him from the nest,
And should he, thirsting for the sun, mount skyward,
The light that he shall bring is not for you.
His wings may part the clouds and free the sunlight —
It shall not fall on you.
Far distant shall he soar above the crags,
His scream beyond your hearing. ...
When thus you shall have spurned your best ones from you,
One after another, you shall sit bereaved,
Your tent despoiled, all beauty fled your dwelling,
A dread and desolation to be seen.
God's blessing nevermore shall cross the threshold,
Salvation's joy stand tapping at the window.
And when you turn to pray, the words shall fail you,
To weep — the tears, because your heart shall dry
And fade and shrink — a garland from the vineyard
That withers in a corner of the winepress.
The sap shall never visit it again,
The wine that bids the drooping heart rejoice,
And yields refreshment to the languid soul.
The hearthfire, when you crave it, shall have died,
The cat mew loudly in the chilly ashes. ...
And you shall soon wax grey and moody — round you
The endless sadness, and within you, nothing.
Your eyes shall seek the dead flies in the window,
The spiders in unswept and empty corners,
And misery shall whine within the chimney,
The housewall shake to ev'ry passing fread.