A Question of Law
From where came this power that at a word gave birth
To a fiery orb, a colder moon and its attendant earth?
And why as the orb retires from the sky
Does yonder gentler moon arise
And oceans that follow its airy course
All obeying and moving before its force?
What drives the seasons to fill up the year
Each in order as they appear?
How does spring hang blossoms on hedges and trees
And what causes to blow the gentle breeze?
Who calls up summer and the art it weaves,
What greens the meadows, what tints the leaves?
From where in autumn come the evening dews
And who paints the earth in so many varying hues?
From where do they come all these laws?
It's time to think, it's time to pause.
Is order heaven's first law and if addressed
Which is or is not greater than the rest?
If happiness is our earthly aim
Is pleasure, wealth, belief its name?
And as we breathe an eternal sigh
For something to live for, to believe in, to die,
How is it sown that seed when cast below
And once in mortal soil, how strike, how grow?
And having struck does some eternal cause
Have favourites that obey its laws?
Do mortals merit some peculiar care
And what is it that knows who they are?
Are the clergy heaven's blessing or its rod
As one cries there is, another cries there is no G-d?
Why is it that at puberty comes undone
The virtues all had naturally at year one?
If light and darkness are in our nature joined
Is one a gift and the other purloined?
Is it our dual nature or our free will
That causes all physical and moral ill?
From where do they come all these laws?
It's time to think, it's time to pause.
~~~
British Bill © 1998
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