Poem by Alfred Noyes

The Origin of Life

[Written in answer to certain scientific pronouncements]

    I

    In the beginning?--Slowly grope we back
            Along the narrowing track,
    Back to the deserts of the world's pale prime,
            The mire, the clay, the slime;
    And then ... what then? Surely to something less;
            Back, back, to Nothingness!

    II

    You dare not halt upon that dwindling way!
            There is no gulf to stay
    Your footsteps to the last. Go back you must!
            Far, far below the dust,
    Descend, descend! Grade by dissolving grade,
            We follow, unafraid!
    Dissolve, dissolve this moving world of men
            Into thin air--and then?

    III

    O pioneers, O warriors of the Light,
            In that abysmal night,
    Will you have courage, then, to rise and tell
            Earth of this miracle?
    Will you have courage, then, to bow the head,
            And say, when all is said--

    "Out of this Nothingness arose our thought!
            This blank abysmal Nought
    Woke, and brought forth that lighted City street,
            Those towers, that armoured fleet?" ...

    IV

    When you have seen those vacant primal skies
            Beyond the centuries.
    Watched the pale mists across their darkness flow,
            As in a lantern-show,
    Weaving, by merest "chance," out of thin air,
            Pageants of praise and prayer;
    Watched the great hills like clouds arise and set,
            And one--named Olivet;
    When you have seen, as a shadow passing away,
            One child clasp hands and pray;
    When you have seen emerge from that dark mire
            One martyr, ringed with fire;
    Or, from that Nothingness, by special grace,
            One woman's love-lit face, ...

    V

    Will you have courage, then, to front that law
            (From which your sophists draw
    Their only right to flout one human creed)
            That nothing can proceed--
    Not even thought, not even love--from less
            Than its own nothingness?
    The law is yours! But dare you waive your pride,
            And kneel where you denied?
    The law is yours! Dare you re-kindle, then,
            One faith for faithless men,
    And say you found, on that dark road you trod,
            In the beginning--GOD?

1. The Escape of the Old Grey Squirrel
2. Earth-Bound
3. Fishers of Men
4. Kilmeny
5. The Trumpet Call

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