Poem of the Week LXXXI

Homage

Amos Niven Wilder

To those who offer themselves willingly in the day of decision,

In the great arbitrament,

Who are prompt at the gate,

And who present themselves foremost at the fords of Megiddo,

And take their stations at the narrow issues:

Theirs are the great jeopardies, the necessary role, the memorable name,

Their encounter is with the heart of darkness.

For some the searchings of heart, the scruple, the fastidious witness,

For others the fateful evasion, the abiding reproaches,

For many the frivolous and the usual occasions.

But these on the crumbling levees match themselves with the infuriate flood.

These beneath the waves toil at the primeval sea-walls

Whose courses were laid against chaos.

These repair the moles erected of old against the ravining deep.

These descend where the nethermost piers of history are building,

And place their lives if need be at the foundation of all the ages of glory to come.