160. Evil by Marie E. J. Pitt. Murdoch, Walter, comp. 1918. The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse

Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

160. Evil

By Marie E. J. Pitt


NOT Beelzebub, but white archangel, I
Turn the dim glass and shift the sands again,
And touch the eyelids of the sons of men
Lest they forget—forget and drowsy lie
In Fate’s unfurrowed fallow till they die—	5
As seed that quickens not for dawns that leap
From out the dark of immemorial years,
With kiss of wind and sun and wizard tears
Of fugitive clouds to wake them from their sleep.
With milestones I have set the crumbling sod	10
Of human judgement that they stray not wide,
Nor languish lost in labyrinths alway;
And smile in pity when I hear them pray
That Wrong’s rude whips from them be turned aside,
Who call me Evil—not discerning God.	15