English Poetry. Vachel Lindsay. The Unpardonable Sin. Вэчел Линдсей.

Vachel Lindsay (Вэчел Линдсей)

The Unpardonable Sin

This is the sin against the Holy Ghost: —
To speak of bloody power as right divine,
And call on God to guard each vile chief’s house,
And for such chiefs, turn men to wolves and swine:—

To go forth killing in White Mercy’s name,
Making the trenches stink with spattered brains, 
Tearing the nerves and arteries apart,
Sowing with flesh the unreaped golden plains.

In any Church’s name, to sack fair towns,
And turn each home into a screaming sty,
To make the little children fugitive,
And have their mothers for a quick death cry,—

This is the sin against the Holy Ghost:
This is the sin no purging can atone:—
To send forth rapine in the name of Christ:—
To set the face, and make the heart a stone.

Vachel Lindsay’s other poems:

1. I Heard Immanuel Singing
2. When Gassy Thompson Struck It Rich
3. Where Is David, the Next King of Israel?
4. With a Bouquet of Twelve Roses
5. To Mary Pickford

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

Gilbert Chesterton (Гилберт Честертон) The Unpardonable Sin (“I do not cry, beloved, neither curse”)

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