INDUSTRIAL DISCONTENT.
As time rolled on the whole world came
to be
A desolation and a darksome
curse;
And some one said: “The changes
that you see
In the fair frame of things,
from bad to worse,
Are wrought by strikes. The sun withdrew
his glimmer
Because the moon assisted with her shimmer.
“Then, when poor Luna, straining
very hard,
Doubled her light to serve
a darkling world,
He called her ‘scab,’ and
meanly would retard
Her rising: and at last
the villain hurled
A heavy beam which knocked her o’er
the Lion
Into the nebula of great O’Ryan.
“The planets all had struck some
time before,
Demanding what they said were
equal rights:
Some pointing out that others had far
more
That a fair dividend of satellites.
So all went out—though those
the best provided,
If they had dared, would rather have abided.
“The stars struck too—I
think it was because
The comets had more liberty
than they,
And were not bound by any hampering laws,
While they were fixed;
and there are those who say
The comets’ tresses nettled poor
Altair,
An aged orb that hasn’t any hair.
“The earth’s the only one
that isn’t in
The movement—I
suppose because she’s watched
With horror and disgust how her fair skin
Her pranking parasites have
fouled and blotched
With blood and grease in every labor riot,
When seeing any purse or throat to fly
at.”
TEMPORA MUTANTUR.
“The world is dull,” I cried
in my despair:
“Its myths and fables are no longer
fair.
“Roll back thy centuries, O Father
Time.
To Greece transport me in her golden prime.
“Give back the beautiful old Gods
again—
The sportive Nymphs, the Dryad’s
jocund train,
“Pan piping on his reeds, the Naiades,
The Sirens singing by the sleepy seas.
“Nay, show me but a Gorgon and I’ll
dare
To lift mine eyes to her peculiar hair
“(The fatal horrors of her snaky
pate,
That stiffen men into a stony state)
“And die—erecting, as
my soul goes hence,
A statue of myself, without expense.”
Straight as I spoke I heard the voice
of Fate:
“Look up, my lad, the Gorgon sisters
wait.”
Raising my eyes, I saw Medusa stand,
Stheno, Euryale, on either hand.
I gazed unpetrified and unappalled—
The girls had aged and were entirely bald!
CONTENTMENT.
Sleep fell upon my senses and I dreamed
Long years had circled since
my life had fled.
The world was different, and all things
seemed
Remote and strange, like noises
to the dead.
And one great Voice there
was; and something said:
“Posterity is speaking—rightly
deemed
Infallible:” and so I gave
attention,
Hoping Posterity my name would mention.