Page:Barham Beach - a poem of regeneration.djvu/24

And in this languid later day we too, yes, even we,
Poor fainting atoms, oft have drawn Antrcus-like from thee
New strength, a moment s fleeting joy, a faith to feel again
That He who fashioned thee so fair hath also fashioned men,
And that, everlasting hill ! long as thyself should stand
Secure, so also men were safe in the hollow of His hand,
But now, the horror! Red and rent art thou from base to crown,
Thy scarped crags and mossy dells alike have hurtled down,
And things unnamed and slimy, things that Nature hath forbid
To seek the light, creep blindly out from secret crypts long hid,
Unlovely noisome efts and newts and sad bewildered gnomes,
Lamenting with a giant s woe their little ravished homes,
And tiny turbid rills steal forth and brownly to the plain
Eun sobbing, striving with their tears to wash away the stain,
high sweet hill ! thou noblest type of beauty and of force,
Alas! that thou shouldst bar in vain the dread volcanic course
Of No, there is no name befits that dark mysterious Power
Which we call Fate when brokenly beneath its wheels we cower,
And when beyond the belching clouds our trembling hearts can trace
Only a lifted angry hand and thunderous dim face,
"Tis otherwise we name that Power when harpstrings pulse and play
For us, when for our eager hearts bloometh the rose of May,