Each in his own Tongue
A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jelly-fish and a saurian,
And caves where the cave-men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty
And a face turned from the clod, --
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.
A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite, tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields,
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the golden-rod, --
Some of us call it Autumn,
And others call it God.
Like tides on a crescent sea-beach,
When the moon is new and thin,
Into our hearts high yearnings
Come welling and surging in:
Come from the mystic ocean,
Whose rim no foot has trod, --
Some of us call it Longing,
And others call it God.
A picket frozen on duty,
A mother starved for her brood,
Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood;
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight, hard pathway plod, --
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.
-- William Herbert Carruth
2 comments:
I don't think the word is "or", but rather "and". I think that's the way it was intended by Carruth -- in each case the "some" and the "others" are both speaking aright, and ultimately, behind all the observations, there indeed is God.
Thank you for sharing a beautiful and very deep piece.
ed
Carruth was a Unitarian-Universalist so we need not agree with his theology. I agree that it is a beautiful poem.
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