“Gratias Ago”

Since of earth, air and water, The gods have made me part⁠— Let every human sin be mine Except the thankless heart! Privileged and greatly, I partake Of sleep and death and birth; And kneeling, drink the sacrament⁠— The good red wine of earth. I shall not ask the High Gods For aught that they can give; They gave the greatest gift of all When first they bade me live. Great gift of dawn and starlight, Of sea and grass and river; With leave to toil and laugh and weep And praise the Sun forever! Be death the end or not the end, Too richly blest am I To seek the hill behind the hill, The sky behind the sky. Let the red earth that bore me Give me her call again, And I’ll lie still beneath her flowers And sleep and not complain. Let those the gods have blinded Hold their long feud with Fate⁠— And clutch at toys that never yet Could make one mean man great. Let those that Earth has bastarded Fret and contrive and plan⁠— But I will enter like an heir The old estate of man!