Classic Poem

In the youth of my turbulent spirit,
In the days when fasting and prayer changed the hue of life and hope,
In days when the priests seemed plausible and I traveled abreast with the scholars of the world:
Then I thought man needed to be saved,
Then I thought I as a superior person was needed to save the world:
So I put on my best clothes and best manners and went out in the crowds,
And raised my supercilious voice above the babel of the world's dissent.

I put canvas before the artist and he painted his great picture,
I put a pen in the hand of the poet and he wrote an immortal song,
I put holy books on pulpits and persuaded from its orators the thunder of their threats,
I sent travelers abroad to fix my seed everywhere in alien soil,
I hastened my couriers, who produced from men grave and gracious deeds.
Now, I said, the earth, man, will be saved:
Now nothing further needs to be done,
Now I will rest here in the shade while the note accrues.

But man was not saved,
Harvests came and were eaten and man was not saved,
Art celebrated nuptials and feasted upon itself and became of age and bore a great name, but man was not saved,
Religion reared temples and went to sleep in them, but man was not saved.
And so I had wearily but still with faith to get up and pursue my journey,
Still with perfect sight the promise forward reading.

Ugly, ill at ease, fretful, distressed and sore,
Driven by counter currents off the direct ascent,
With heart humbled and the deeds of the heart effaced,
All moods of rebellion lost in one mood of humility,
I cast my lot with the outlaw, I went full armed over to the foe.

What was the secret?
Out of that resolve grew all the purity of the earth,
Out of that venture was struck all the gold of discovery:
To forswear virtue and to go with those who are the offenders,
To throw away the leaden vanities: O God! how that reduced the burden!
To mix with sorrow and vice and lose in them the rank prides and the cursory blessings:
To take no property with the heart: to go shorn of everything:
To have nothing to give and to desire nothing:
This was the secret:
By this sign was I to get upon good terms with the estranged universe.

Then I saw that the world did not need to be saved:
Then I saw that I needed to be saved:
Then I saw that even I did not need to be saved:
Then I felt the pulse of something which set me down upon a certain spot,
Then I saw all the rest seized and set down upon certain spots,
Then the sun shone on all and merged all in continuity, succession and coherency.

Now the world was new,
Now great deeds were no more and little deeds were no more,
Now an evil humor meant no more harm to man than a good humor,
Now the best man was no better than the worst man,
Now no one was punished for being what he was and no one was rewarded for being what he was not,
Now virtue was no hardier working out its own fortunes than working out the fortunes of evil,
Now law was made meaningless if it became a rule with exceptions,
Now prosperity was surely dead ashes if it did not warm every hearth.

For no word abolished anything but life abolished all words,
For the savior is not a man nailed to a cross —
The savior is any man or woman who without cross or nail lives earth's simple life on the plane of its first propositions.