The gods are dead? Perhaps they are! Who knows? <br />Living at least in Lempriere undeleted, <br />The wise, the fair, the awful, the jocose, <br />Are one and all. I like to think, retreated <br />In some still land of lilacs and the rose. <br /> <br />Once high they sat, and high o’er earthly shows <br />With sacrificial dance and song were greeted. <br />Once… long ago. But now, the story goes, <br />The gods are dead. <br /> <br />It must be true. The world, a world of prose, <br />Full-crammed with facts, in science swathed and sheeted, <br />Nods in a stertorous after-dinner doze! <br />Plangent and sad, in every wind that blows <br />Who will may hear the sorry words repeated: – <br />‘The Gods are Dead!’<br /><br />William Ernest Henley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-gods-are-dead/
