The Necessitarian

1 
I know not in Whose hands are laid
   To empty upon earth
From unsuspected ambuscade
  The very Urns of Mirth;
2 
Who bids the Heavenly Lark arise
  And cheer our solemn round–
The Jest beheld with streaming eyes
  And grovellings on the ground;
3 
Who joins the flats of Time and Chance
  Behind the prey preferred,
And thrones on Shrieking Circumstance
  The Sacredly Absurd,
4 
Till Laughter, voiceless through excess,
   Waves mute appeal and sore,
Above the midriff's deep distress,
  For breath to laugh once more.
5 
No creed hath dared to hail Him Lord,
  No raptured choirs proclaim,
And Nature's strenuous Overword
    Hath nowhere breathed His Name.
6 
Yet, it must be, on wayside jape,
  The selfsame Power bestows
The selfsame power as went to shape
  His Planet or His Rose.

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