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Show By ALFRED NOYES THE REDEMPTION OF EUROPE . . . doncc temp/a refcrm‘is. Under which banner ? It was night Beyond all nights that ever were. The Cross was broken. Blood-stained might IVIoved like a tiger from its lair ; And all that heaven had died to quell Awake, and mingled earth with hell. For Europe, if it held a creed, Held it through custom, not through faith. Chaos returned, in dream and deed. Right was a legend ; Love-~a wraith ; And That from which the world began Was less than even the best in man. God in the image of a Snake Dethroned that dream, too fond, too blind, The man-shaped God whose heart could break, Live, die, and triumph with mankind. A Super-snake, a juggernaut, Dethroned the highest of human thought. The lists were set. The eternal foe, Within us as without grew strong, By many a super-subtle blow Blurring the lines of right and wrong In Art and Thought, till nought seemed true But that soul-slaughtering cry of New ! New wreckage of the shrines we made Thro' centuries of forgotten tears . . . We knew not where their scorn had laid Our Master. Twice a thousand years Had dulled the uncapricious Sun. Manifold worlds obscured the One |