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Ode To Joy

Wild and fearful in his cavern
Hid the naked troglodyte,
And the homeless nomad wandered
Laying waste the fertile plain.
Menacing with spear and arrow In the woods the hunter strayed .
.
.
Woe to all poor wreteches stranded On those cruel and hostile shores! From the peak of high Olympus Came the mother Ceres down, Seeeking in those savage regions Her lost daughter Prosperine.
But the Goddess found no refuge, Found no kindly welcome there, And no temple bearing witness To the worship of the gods.
From the fields and from the vineyards Came no fruit to deck the feasts, Only flesh of blood-stained victims Smouldered on the alter-fires, And where'er the grieving goddess Turns her melancholy gaze, Sunk in vilest degradation Man his loathsomeness displays.
Would he purge his soul from vileness And attain to light and worth, He must turn and cling forever To his ancient Mother Earth.
Joy everlasting fostereth The soul of all creation, It is her secret ferment fires The cup of life with flame.
'Tis at her beck the grass hath turned Each blade toward the light and solar systems have evolved From chaos and dark night, Filling the realms of boundless space Beyond the sage's sight.
At bounteous nature's kindly breast, All things that breath drink Joy, And bird and beasts and creaping things All follow where she leads.
Her gifts to man are friends in need, The wreath, the foaming must, To angels -- visions of God's throne, To insects -- sensual lust.

Poem by Anonymous
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