A SONG OF MEN

OUT of the soil and the slime,

Reeking, they climb,

Out of the muck and the mire,

Rank, they aspire;

Filthy with murder and mud,

Black with shed blood,

Lust and passion and clay —

Dying, they slay;

Stirred by vague hints of a goal,

Seeking a soul!

Groping through terror and night

Up to the light:

Life in the dust and the clod

Sensing a God;

Flushed of the glamor and gleam

Caught from a dream;

Stained of the struggle and toil,

Stained of the soil,

Ally of God in the end —

Helper and friend —

Hero and prophet and priest

Out of the beast!