'Duovir'
I KNOW — as you — a man who is two men
Companioned by diverse ancestral strains
In one gaunt awkward body that must needs
Attempt to serve them both incessantly:
One, scion of a long-forgotten god
Who herded clouds and stars and warded trees
And tended tides and tamed mad rivers ere
The engineers had learned the simplest arts,
And who, to give him home upon the earth
Amid his officed tasks, leading his flocks
From sea through forests to the mountain crests,
Wedded an Aryan maid whose father dwelt
Upon a hill above the highest spring,
Commanding view of mountain, sea and sky. —
So had the first his soul and name from her
Who lived, god-visited, upon the heights.
Companioned by diverse ancestral strains
In one gaunt awkward body that must needs
Attempt to serve them both incessantly:
One, scion of a long-forgotten god
Who herded clouds and stars and warded trees
And tended tides and tamed mad rivers ere
The engineers had learned the simplest arts,
And who, to give him home upon the earth
Amid his officed tasks, leading his flocks
From sea through forests to the mountain crests,
Wedded an Aryan maid whose father dwelt
Upon a hill above the highest spring,
Commanding view of mountain, sea and sky. —
So had the first his soul and name from her
Who lived, god-visited, upon the heights.
The other boasted his descent from one
Who ruled by might upon the isle where now
A king-born man rules but in name alone —
A practic lord who built great Thorfin’s walls,
Progenitor of those who habit towns,
Who fashion, barter, carry, and control,
Masters of men who fight and toil and save;
Makers of things that clothe and house and feed;
Careless of cloud and star except as they
Replenish wells or guide the errant ships.
Who ruled by might upon the isle where now
A king-born man rules but in name alone —
A practic lord who built great Thorfin’s walls,
Progenitor of those who habit towns,
Who fashion, barter, carry, and control,
Masters of men who fight and toil and save;
Makers of things that clothe and house and feed;
Careless of cloud and star except as they
Replenish wells or guide the errant ships.
Each was the heritor of vast estates
That stretched divergent back from every day: On one side toward the halcyon Grecian isles,
And on the other toward the mists that brood
Above the northern fjords; nor mingle till
They come convergent near the far-off gate
Whence Adam came all flushed and frightened forth,
And Eve beside him weeping sore.
So got
Of god and cosmic clay, and so endowed,
These diversivolent duoviri,
As one big homely human avatar,
Tried each with each to do their double best
’Twixt dream and deed — poet and pragmatist,
Mystic and potent manager of men.
That stretched divergent back from every day: On one side toward the halcyon Grecian isles,
And on the other toward the mists that brood
Above the northern fjords; nor mingle till
They come convergent near the far-off gate
Whence Adam came all flushed and frightened forth,
And Eve beside him weeping sore.
So got
Of god and cosmic clay, and so endowed,
These diversivolent duoviri,
As one big homely human avatar,
Tried each with each to do their double best
’Twixt dream and deed — poet and pragmatist,
Mystic and potent manager of men.
One loved the solitude, the forest paths,
The lonely night, the voices of the stars,
The rain upon the roof, the scent of trees,
The light upon the hills, the open road.
The lonely night, the voices of the stars,
The rain upon the roof, the scent of trees,
The light upon the hills, the open road.
The other cared for crowds and comradeship,
The bustling streets, the plauding multitudes,
The council hall, the camp, the battlefield,
The glare and tumult of the victory.
The bustling streets, the plauding multitudes,
The council hall, the camp, the battlefield,
The glare and tumult of the victory.
Together, they were Man upon his way
From God to God, summing the race that’s been,
But giving glimpse of a diviner grace
Than has evolved — or will, if we accept
The teaching of the biologic mind
That sees his evolution at an end —
Than has evolved, but will; for soul is bound
To mould such body as its needs require
To bear it toward and to the goal it seeks —
Else why were clay uplifted to this height
If it can never reach the higher height,
The image it would make of God in Man?
From God to God, summing the race that’s been,
But giving glimpse of a diviner grace
Than has evolved — or will, if we accept
The teaching of the biologic mind
That sees his evolution at an end —
Than has evolved, but will; for soul is bound
To mould such body as its needs require
To bear it toward and to the goal it seeks —
Else why were clay uplifted to this height
If it can never reach the higher height,
The image it would make of God in Man?