[BNP/E3, 78A – 2-3]

Death of God

Priest and Hangman.

___

“Burn me that book well, hangman,

        Burn it to the last leaf,

Put at the stake the apostate

        Whose hand of truth was thief.

“Burn his house to the ground, man,

        Starve his children and wife,

His friends disperse, dissever,

        His followers put to the knife.

“His works, his books, his poems

        To fire's oblivion fling;

Let ashes remain of all this.

        Remains there anything?”

– “Some that stand by on looking

        Have tears within their eyes.”

– “The stake shall be their ending

        And vain and lone their cries.”

– “All's done, my lord.” – “Remaineth

        There aught that was, of theirs?”

– “Ashes” – “Throw them to the winds then;

        Still aught of them appears?”

[3^r]

Priest and Hangman – 2.

– “My lord, there still persisteth

        The name they had of good.”

– “Trouble not; ‘twill be forgotten

        As their ashes and their blood.”

“Nothing remaineth. – “My lord, yet

        Ought can I not dispel:

Our name that will be ever

        A curse and a living hell.”

– “We also shall be forgotten

        As these shall cease to be.

What will remain then? – “My lord, still

        The name of Tyranny.”

– “That also will remain not.”

        – “But the Cause of what we do,

Of this bad world will.” – “What thou meanest

        My mind cannot construe.”

– “My lord, I mean 'tis useless

        That all things be crushed and trod.

There will then stand out to be hated

        The accursèd name of God.”

Alexander Search

January 2^nd. 1908.