The Everlasting Mercy

‘Tis a grand thing to be able to look To a future that will never change; To know that the childhood of man is a book That we shall have read out of range; That the heart of the man will be true and have peace In the power of the Word and the light of Release; And it is a very grand thing, too: To be there when the man begins, And to tan in the sun, and to keep the place with due Care of dominion Our Lord began, To be on the neck of the beasts that we breed, And the beasts that we race: To step with the trodden and keep the pace. Old time draws in, with his whitening beard, With the crumbling grain and the sunset flares; And there’s a wind from the water that cleared, When the gairdner sends up the snows and swears.

Who loves the sunlight to follow and breathe From his silver side to the waiters, to drive; Will see joy alight on the heart of the heath, ‘Tis a charm that is bent when we work for the key; And a man will yield to the dawn of the day, For it’s there that we master our glee!

• John Masefield