Epigraph
The Unleashed Gods
By Percy Shaw
Iron and rock are our slaves;
We are liege to marble and steel;
We go our ways through our purse-proud days,
Lifting our voices in loud self-praise—
Forgetting the God at the wheel.
We build our bulwarks of stone,
Skyscraper and culvert and tower,
Till the God of Flood, keen-nosed for blood,
Drags our monuments into the mud
In the space of a red-eyed hour.
Kings of the oceans are we,
With our liners of rocket speed,
Till the God of Ice, in mist-filled trice,
Calls to us harshly to pay his price
As we sink to the deep-sea weed.
Muscle and brain are our slaves;
We are liege to iron and steel;
But who shall say, tomorrow, today,
That we shall not halt on our onward way
To bow to the God at the wheel?