War and Love/Vicarious Atonement

by Richard Aldington

 

VICARIOUS ATONEMENT

This is an old and very cruel god …

We will endure;We will try not to winceWhen he crushes and rends us.

If indeed it is for your sakes,If we perish or moan in torture,Or stagger under sordid burdensThat you may live—Then we can endure.

If our wasted blood Makes bright the pageOf poets yet to be;If this our tortured lifeSave from destruction's nailsGold words of a Greek long dead;Then we can endure,Then hope,Then watch the sun riseWithout utter bitterness.

But, O thou old and very cruel god,Take, if thou canst, this bitter cup from us.