Hymn to Breaking Strain

from Secular Solstice [Official Version] by Raymond Arnold

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lyrics

The careful text-books measure - Let all who build beware!
The load, the shock, the pressure material can bear:
So, when the buckled girder lets down the grinding span
The blame of loss, or murder, is laid upon the man
Not on the Steel - the Man!

But, in our daily dealing with stone and steel, we find
The Gods have no such feeling of justice toward mankind
To no set gauge they make us, for no laid course prepare
In time they overtake us with loads we cannot bear:
Too merciless to bear

The prudent text-books give it in tables at the end
The stress that shears a rivet, or makes a tie-bar bend
What traffic wrecks macadam - what concrete should endure
But we, poor Sons of Adam, have no such literature
To warn us or make sure!
To warn us or make sure!

We hold all Earth to plunder - all Time and Space as well
Too wonder-stale to wonder at each new miracle
Till in the mid-illusion of Godhood 'neath our hand
Falls multiple confusion on all we did or planned
The mighty works we planned
The mighty works we planned

We only in Creation - how much luckier the bridge and rail!
Abide the twin damnation: to fail and know we fail
Yet we - by which sole token we know we once were Gods
Take shame in being broken, however great the odds

Oh, veiled and secret Power, whose paths we seek in vain
Be with us in our hour of overthrow and pain
That we - by which sure token we know Thy ways are true
In spite of being broken, or because of being broken
Rise up and build anew
Stand up and build anew!

credits

from Secular Solstice [Official Version], released December 12, 2019
Lyrics by Rudyard Kipling, Melody by Leslie Fish

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Raymond Arnold New York, New York

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