Alfred Hitch

GOD SAID

GOD said: “The hero’s part, to play it,

The flowers of life, the good of ill,

Are yours if you but say, I will”—

And do you know? I could not say it!

TO THE SPHINX

O Spirit of the Changeless Past,

What think’st thou of our present state?

Thou look’st quite through us, and beyond—

The eyes of Death gazing at Fate.

LIBERTY

A thousand years ago begun

The fight for liberty,

A thousand battles have been won—

And still we are not free.

LIMITATIONS

We look through telescopes to see

Infinity;

And with the blocks of time build up

Eternity.

FEAR

Fear gave the antelope its speed,

The bird its wings;

And half the world is saved by flight

And fear of things.

THE FAITHFUL

As the kneeling Mussulman

To Mecca turns to pray,

So my heart, dear, turns to thee

And never turns away.

TO KNOW AND NOT TO KNOW

Not to know is Hate

That in cruelty wreaks its fears.

To know is Love,

And Pity is Love in tears.