Apollo Defends Humanity
My brothers, sisters, all of this I’ve seen
As every day across the sky I’ve been.
Whilst you have watched the flowers gleam and grow,
‘Twas I that held the lamp that made them so.
And I have wept for regions, now despoiled,
Where I have shown my strength, and you have toiled.
Yet we, who know so well the careless void,
Cannot destroy Creation, though annoyed.
And we who swore to fill the empty cup
Must never be the ones to break it up!
My brothers, sisters, let us not forget
That reason rides but roughly them as yet.
If reason’s lower facets were a tool
To better arm the base and blundering fool
There’s yet a cooling calm within this jewel.
Perhaps as they shall peer into its glow,
Perhaps the pull of peace they’ll better know.
And they shall give their substance to a thought,
And bask within its glories, as they ought;
And find it dwells in peace: in turmoil, not.
My brothers, sisters, give me leave to seek,
To yet pursue our dream, however weak.
For we who see the furthest have most kin,
And we must raise, not lower, those who sin!
As reason served as reason’s ruin, well said.
Yet reason shall by reason’s ruin be fed.
For I shall send my student ‘midst their throngs,
The scholar Chiron, who all learning longs,
And through his reason, shall we right their wrongs.
For teachers are the torch the gods may send,
Whose patient light, the wounds of darkness mend;
Who, but they bring beginnings, there be end.
Copyright ©
Jerrold Prothero
|