[There is no God, as I was taught in youth...]
[There is no God, as I was taught in youth...]
Original Text
John Masefield, Poems (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1945): 367.
1There is no God, as I was taught in youth,
2Though each, according to his stature, builds
3Some covered shrine for what he thinks the truth,
4Which day by day his reddest heart-blood gilds.
5There is no God; but death, the clasping sea,
6In which we move like fish, deep over deep
7Made of men's souls that bodies have set free,
8Floods to a Justice though it seems asleep.
9There is no God, but still, behind the veil,
10The hurt thing works, out of its agony.
11Still; like a touching of a brimming Grail,
12Return the pennies given to passers by.
13There is no God, but we, who breathe the air,
14Are God ourselves and touch God everywhere.
Publication Start Year
1916
Publication Notes
Sonnets (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1916).
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
Rhyme
Form