Henry Lawson - The Unknown God lyrics

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!