I Met A Man by Thomas Hardy Lyrics

        I met a man when night was nigh,
        Who said, with shining face and eye
         Like Moses' after Sinai:-

         "I have seen the Moulder of Monarchies,
             Realms, peoples, plains and hills,
         Sitting upon the sunlit seas! -
         And, as He sat, soliloquies
Fell from Him like an antiphonic breeze
             That pricks the waves to thrills.

        "Meseemed that of the maimed and dead
             Mown down upon the globe, -
         Their plenteous blooms of promise shed
         Ere fruiting-time—His words were said,
Sitting against the western web of red
             Wrapt in His crimson robe.

        "And I could catch them now and then:
             —'Why let these gambling clans
        Of human Cockers, pit liege men
        From mart and city, dale and glen,
In death-mains, but to swell and swell again
             Their swollen All-Empery plans,
        "'When a mere nod (if my malign
            Compeer but passive keep)
         Would mend that old mistake of mine
         I made with Saul, and ever consign
All Lords of War whose sanctuaries enshrine
             Liberticide, to sleep?

         "'With violence the lands are spread
            Even as in Israel's day,
         And it repenteth me I bred
         Chartered armipotents lust-led
To feuds . . . Yea, grieves my heart, as then I said,
             To see their evil way!'

         —"The utterance grew, and flapped like flame,
            And further speech I feared;
         But no Celestial tongued acclaim,
         And no huzzas from earthlings came,
And the heavens mutely masked as 'twere in shame
             Till daylight disappeared."

Thus ended he as night rode high -
The man of shining face and eye,
Like Moses' after Sinai.

1916.