"The Complex Life"
I know it to be true that those who live
As do the grasses and the lilies of the field
Receiving joy from Heaven, sweetly yield
Their joy to Earth, and taking Beauty, give.
But we are gathered for the looms of Fate
That Time with ever-turning multiplying wheels
Spins into complex patterns and conceals
His huge invention with forms intricate.
Each generation blindly fills the plan,
A sorry muddle or an inspiration of God ;
With many processes from out the sod,
The Earth and Heaven are mingled and made man.
[ . . . ]
Iris Tree's poem "The Complex Life" was published in the 1919 Wheels anthology (p. 42). To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below: