Things Accursed

Be glad if ye know the accursed thing
And know it accurst, for the Gift is yours
Of Sight where the prophets of blindness sing
By the brink of death.

And the Gift endures;

Ye shall see the last of the sharpened lies
That rivet privilege's gripe.

Be still, then, ye with the opened eyes,

Come away from the thing till the time is ripe.
Be glad that ye loathe the accursed thing,
It is given to you to foreknow the end.

But they who the unwise challenge fling 
Shall startle foe at the risk of friend 
As yet unready to endure -
And can ye fend Goliath's swipe? 

The slowly grinding mills are sure, 
Let terror alone till the time is ripe.
Be glad when the shout for the spoils, and the glee, 
The hoofs and the wheels of the prophets of wrong, 
Out thunder the warning of what shall be; 

Be still, for the tumult is not for long. 
he Finger that wrote, from a polished wall 
As surely the closed account shall wipe; 
The accursed thing ye feared shall fall 
To a boy with a sling when the time is ripe.

Talbot Mundy

» SAYINGS OF THE WISE