THE PALACE
WhenI was a King and a Mason—a Master proven and skilled—I cleared me ground for a palace such as a King should build.I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently, under the silt,I came on the wreck of a palace such as a King had built.There was no worth in the fashion—there was no wit in the plan—Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran—Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone:‘After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known.’Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned ground-works grew,I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew.Lime I milled of the marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread;Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart,I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder’s heart.As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understandThe form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned.* * * * *When I was a King and a Mason—in the open noon of my pride,They sent me a Word from the Darkness—They whispered and called me aside.They said—‘The end is forbidden.’ They said—‘Thy use is fulfilled,‘And thy palace shall stand as that other’s—the spoil of a King who shall build.’I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my shears.All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.Only I cut on the timber, only I carved on the stone:After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known!
WhenI was a King and a Mason—a Master proven and skilled—I cleared me ground for a palace such as a King should build.I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently, under the silt,I came on the wreck of a palace such as a King had built.There was no worth in the fashion—there was no wit in the plan—Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran—Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone:‘After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known.’Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned ground-works grew,I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew.Lime I milled of the marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread;Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart,I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder’s heart.As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understandThe form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned.* * * * *When I was a King and a Mason—in the open noon of my pride,They sent me a Word from the Darkness—They whispered and called me aside.They said—‘The end is forbidden.’ They said—‘Thy use is fulfilled,‘And thy palace shall stand as that other’s—the spoil of a King who shall build.’I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my shears.All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.Only I cut on the timber, only I carved on the stone:After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known!
WhenI was a King and a Mason—a Master proven and skilled—I cleared me ground for a palace such as a King should build.I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently, under the silt,I came on the wreck of a palace such as a King had built.
There was no worth in the fashion—there was no wit in the plan—Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran—Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone:‘After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known.’
Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned ground-works grew,I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew.Lime I milled of the marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread;Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.
Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart,I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builder’s heart.As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understandThe form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned.
* * * * *
When I was a King and a Mason—in the open noon of my pride,They sent me a Word from the Darkness—They whispered and called me aside.They said—‘The end is forbidden.’ They said—‘Thy use is fulfilled,‘And thy palace shall stand as that other’s—the spoil of a King who shall build.’
I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my shears.All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.Only I cut on the timber, only I carved on the stone:After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known!