ASCENSION DAY 
21
That worthy Yankee millionaire, 
And wealthy nephews, young and fair, 
The pleasing Crawfords !  Lost !  Lost !  Lost !78 
“The Holy Spirit, friend ! beware !” 
Ah ! ten days yet to Pentecost ! 
Come that, I promise you—but stay ! 
At present ’tis Ascension Day ! 
At least your faith should be content. 
I quarrel not with this event. 
The supernatural element ? 
I deny nothing—at the term 
It is just Nothing I affirm. 
The fool (with whom is wisdom, deem 
The Scriptures—rightly !) in his heart  
Saith (silent, to himself, apart) 
This secret : “\yhla }ya”79 
See the good Psalm !  And thus, my friend ! 
My diatribes approach the end 
And find us hardly quarelling. 
And yet—you seem not satisfied ? 
The literal mistranslated thing 
Must not by sinners be denied. 
Go to your Chapel then to pray ! 
(I promise Mr. Chesterton80 
Before the Muse and I have done 
A grand ap-pre-ci-a-ti-on 
Of Brixton on Ascension Day.) 
He’s gone—his belly filled enough ! 
This Robert-Browning-manqué stuff ! 
’Twill serve—Mercutio’s scratch !—to show 
Where God and I are disagreed. 
There !  I have let my feelings go 
This once.  Again ?  I deem not so. 
Once for my fellow-creature’s need ! 
The rest of life, for self-control,81 
For liberation of the soul !82 
This once, the truth !  In future, best 
Dismissing Jesus with a jest. 
Ah !  Christ ascends ?83  Ascension day ? 
Old wonders bear the bell84 away ? 
Santos-Dumont, though !  Who can say ?
745
 
 
750
755
760
765
770
775
780
 
 
 
 
 
The reader  
may hope. 
 
Summary.  
Reader dis-
missed to 
chapel. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Future plans of 
poet.  Jesus 
dismissed with a 
jest. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Jest.