YE SHALL BE GODS

Before the dividing of days

Or the singing of summer or spring

God from the dust did raise

A splendid and goodly thing:

Man – from the womb of the land,

Man – from the sterile sod

Torn by a terrible hand –

Formed in the image of God.

But the life of man is a sorrow

And death a relief from pain,

For love only lasts till tomorrow

And life without love is vain.

ΣTPOΦH

And your strength will wither like grass

Scorched by a pitiless sun,

And the might of your hands will pass

And the sands of your life will run.

O gods not of saving but sorrow

Whose joy is in weeping of men,

Who shall lend thee their life, or who borrow

From others to give thee again?

O gods ever wrathful and tearless,

O gods not of night but of day,

Though your faces be frowning and fearless

Thy kingdom shall pass – men say.

ANTIΣTPOΦH

The spirit of man is arisen

And crowned as a mighty King.

The people have broken from prison

And the voices once voiceless now sing.

Cry aloud, O dethroned and defeated,

Cry aloud for the fading of might,

Too long were ye feared and entreated,

Too long did men worship thy light.

Aye, weep for your crimes without number,

The loving and luring of men,

For your greatness is sunken in slumber,

Your light will n’er lighten again.

ΣTPOΦH B

But as many a lovely flower

Is born of a sterile seed,

In a fatal and fearful hour

There grew from this creedless breed

Love – fostered in flame and in fire

That dies but to blossom again,

Love – ever distilling desire

Like wine with the eyelids of men.

We kneel to the great Iapygian,

We bow to the Lampsacene’s shrine,

For hers is the only religion,

And hers to entice and entwine –

ANTIΣTPOΦH B

There once was another, men tell us,

The giver and taker of life,

A lovingless God and a jealous

Whose joy was in weeping and strife.

He is gone; and his temple ‘tis sunken

In ashes and fallen in dust,

For the souls of the people are drunken

With dreams of the Lady of Lust –

We kneel to the Cyprian Mother,

We take up our lyres and sing,

‘Thou are crowned with the crown of another,

Thou are throned where another was King.’