Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways,
Old now is earth, and none may count her days;
yet thou, her child, whose head is crowned with flames,
still wilt not hear thine inner God proclaim,
Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways.

Earth might be fair and all men glad and wise,
Age after age their tragic empires rise
built while they dream; and in that dreaming weep:
would man but wake from out his haunted sleep
earth might be fair and all men glad and wise.

Clifford Bax