Classic Poem

(Written during the hostilities in the Far East in 1900.)


Hard by the gates of Eden,
Where God first walked with man,
In the light of the new creation,
Ere the race of Cain began,
The world-wide hosts have gathered,
And their swords are drawn to slay:
God was with man in Eden,
But where is God today?

From the ice-bound steppes of the Cossack;
From the home of the fleur-de-lis,
From the vineyards that crown the Rhineland
To the shores of the phosphor sea,
The clans have gathered for battle,
And each for the signal waits,
While a million swords are flaming
At Eden's Eastern gates.

By the sign of the yellow dragon,
By the tri-color's bars of light;
By the double-throated eagle
That screams with the lust of fight,
By the Union Jack of Britannia,
By Columbia's stars and bars,
They pray to the god of battle
For the meed of a hundred wars.

Hard by the gates of Eden,
Where the passion flower of strife
First bloomed at its blood-red altar
At the price of a brother's life,
The children of Cain are gathered
To plunder and burn and slay:
God was with man in Eden,
But where is God today?