STEAM TACTICS
THE NECESSITARIANI know not in whose hands are laidTo empty upon earthFrom unsuspected ambuscadeThe very Urns of Mirth:Who bids the Heavenly Lark ariseAnd cheer our solemn round—The Jest beheld with streaming eyesAnd grovellings on the ground;Who joins the flats of Time and ChanceBehind the prey preferred,And thrones on Shrieking CircumstanceThe Sacredly Absurd,Till Laughter, voiceless through excess.Waves mute appeal and sore,Above the midriff’s deep distress,For breath to laugh once more.No creed hath dared to hail him Lord,No raptured choirs proclaim,And Nature’s strenuous OverwordHath nowhere breathed his name.Yet, may it be, on wayside jape,The selfsame Power bestowsThe selfsame power as went to shapeHis Planet or His Rose.
I know not in whose hands are laidTo empty upon earthFrom unsuspected ambuscadeThe very Urns of Mirth:Who bids the Heavenly Lark ariseAnd cheer our solemn round—The Jest beheld with streaming eyesAnd grovellings on the ground;Who joins the flats of Time and ChanceBehind the prey preferred,And thrones on Shrieking CircumstanceThe Sacredly Absurd,Till Laughter, voiceless through excess.Waves mute appeal and sore,Above the midriff’s deep distress,For breath to laugh once more.No creed hath dared to hail him Lord,No raptured choirs proclaim,And Nature’s strenuous OverwordHath nowhere breathed his name.Yet, may it be, on wayside jape,The selfsame Power bestowsThe selfsame power as went to shapeHis Planet or His Rose.