| William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913. | | | | The Tragedy of Man | | By William Wilfred Campbell (1861–1918) |
| | | LONG, long ago; | |
| Ere these material days; | |
| Ere man learned o’er much for the golden glow | |
| Of Love’s divine amaze; | |
| Ere faith was slain; there came to this sad earth | 5 |
| A high, immortal being of source divine, | |
| And mingling with the upward climbing life, | |
| Like crystal water in some fevered wine, | |
| Wakened in one red blood mysterious strife, | |
| Knowledge of good and ill, and that sad birth | 10 |
| Of splendour and woe for all who yearn and pine. | |
| |
| And this is why, | |
| Down in the craving, remorseful human heart | |
| There doth remain a dream that will not die, | |
| An unassuagèd hunger, that o’er the smart | 15 |
| Of sorrow and shame and travail, clamours eterne | |
| For some high goal, some vision of being superne, | |
| Life doth not grant, earth doth not satisfy. | |
| |
| This is the secret of the heart of man | |
| And his sad tragedy; his godlike powers; | 20 |
| His summer of vastness, and the wintry ban | |
| Of all his greatness high which deity dowers, | |
| Sunk to the yearnings of goat-footed Pan; | |
| Hinted of Shakespeare and that mighty clan | |
| Of earth’s high prophets, who in their brief day, | 25 |
| Holding the glory of the god in them, | |
| Though chained to cravings of the lesser clay, | |
| Dreamed earth’s high dreams, and wore love’s diadem. | |
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| Yea, this is why, | |
| Through all earth’s travail and joy, her seasons brief | 30 |
| Through all her beauty and genius that will not die, | |
| Surges a mighty grief, | |
| Mingling with our heart’s best piety;— | |
| A sadness, dread, divine, | |
| Lifting us beyond the pagan wine | 35 |
| And dance of life, | |
| The satyr clamour and strife, | |
| Unto a dream of being, a yearning flame | |
| Of that heredity whence our sorrowings came. | | | | |
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