INTO the darkness whence they came, They passed -- their country knoweth none,They and their gods without a name Partake the same oblivion.Their work they did, their work is done, Whose gold, it may be, shone like fireAbout the brows of Solomon, And in the House of God's Desire.
Hence came the altar all of gold, The hinges of the Holy Place,The censer with the fragrance rolled Skyward to seek Jehovah's face;The golden ark that did encase The Law within Jerusalem,The lilies and the rings to grace The high priest's robe and diadem.
The pestilence, the desert spear, Smote them; they passed with none to tellThe names of them that laboured here: Stark walls and crumbling crucible,Strait gates, and graves, and ruined well, Abide, dumb monuments of old,We know but that men fought and fell, Like us -- like us -- for love of gold.
