The President to Kingdoms
As in the Days of Old
The King to the Republic
As it had been foretold
They could not read the spelling
They would not hear the call
They would not brook the telling
Of Writing on the Wall
I buy my Peace with Slaughter
With Peace I fashion War
I drown the land with water
With land I build the shore
I walk with Son and Daughter
Where Ocean rolled before
I build a town where sea was
A tower where tempests roar
From bays in distant islands
And rocks in lonely seas
With unseen d**h in silence
I smite mine enemies!
The great Cathedral crashes
Where once a city stood
I build again on ashes
And breed on clotted blood!
I link the seas together
And at my sign and will
The train runs on the ocean bed
The great ship climbs the hill!
For pastime I flood deserts
With water from the rill
And in my tireless leisure hours
I empty lakes, and fill
I plumb the seas beneath us
And fathom skies above
Yet I make Peace for hatred
And I make War for love
I race beneath the ranges
And sit where Mystery dwells
Yet mankind sees no changes
They ask for “miracles!”
I own the world and span its
Lone lands from Pole to Pole
I live in other planets
Yet do not know my soul
The soul that none may fathom
Whose secrets none may tell
The soul that none may humble
The Soul Unconquerable!
I am the God of Ages!
I am the Unknown God!
My life is written pages
Wherever man hath trod
From bounds of Polar regions
To where the Desert reigns
I've left my myriad legions
On countless vanished plains
And I shall reign for ever
On earth while oceans roll
In shape of man, or woman
Through my immortal soul
Yet I can love and suffer
Be angry, or be mild
And I can bow me down and weep
Just like a mortal child
I conquer d**h and Living
And Fiends in shape of men
For I rejoice in giving
Not to receive again
For I am Man!—and Mortal!
And Mammon's Towers must fall
Though Greed draws all his pencils through
The Writing on the Wall!