THE VISION OF HELL

I died and passed from earth and went my way, I trod the starry gulf from sphere to sphere, I felt the breath of God upon my brow As I drew near. I paused above Infinity’s abyss, Scanning the upward path my spirit trod; A million silver planets spun between The earth and God. Yet, scarlet on the ether’s inky waves, The crooked orbit of the earth was cast; Dark silhouettes against that solemn light, Its countless creatures passed. I saw those mortal shadows stumble on, Rising in anguish, passing in a breath, Blind atoms, treading their predestined doom From birth to death. Upon the smiling mask that Nature wears, Was writ the blasphemy of human wills; I saw man’s bloody footprint on the shore, His hand upon the hills. I heard his laughter as he passed along, I heard the mortal boast immortal breath; I saw the earth in tragic irony, Plunge to its death. Then low into Jehovah’s listening ear I spoke: “O God of Gods, the life you gave Is but a lying travesty, whose lie Ends in the grave. “Look on the lives that you have made and marred, Filing gray phantoms in a hapless train: The stronger finds your heaven; the weaker finds An endless pain. “O God, within the hollow of whose hand A million worlds are tossed to win or lose, You choose the stronger for salvation, but The damned I choose. “I take my stand upon the weaker side, I grasp the sinner’s hand, I share his fate; The hell of those who failed, I choose, or those Who win too late.” God smiled: across the inky ether way, A flash that lighted worlds supernal fell. “It is the damned you look upon,” God said: “The earth is hell.”