Poem by Edith Nesbit

A Choice

THE flood of utter change is loosed. A space
    Is ours yet, for its coming to prepare.
    Shall we build dams with cautious, clumsy care,
Or stand with idle hands and frightened face,
And so be whirled all broken from our place,
    And perish with the dams we builded there?
    Or shall we dig a broad, deep channel, where
Most fields may feel the flood's benign embrace?

Thus turned 'twill be a calm majestic flood
    Of plenty, peace, and fertilising power,
Whose banks fresh flowers of love and joy shall deck.
    Oppose it: at the inevitable hour,
Tumultuous, black with ruin, red with blood,
'Twill come--and you shall have no chance but wreck!

1. To One Who Pleaded for Candour in Love
2. A Last Appeal
3. Love and Knowledge
4. The Touchstone
5. The Stolen God

John Stagg A Choice ("Propitious Heav'n, hear my request")

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