THE LAWS OF GOD, THE LAWS OF MAN

The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep with a view to and might;
now not I: let God and man decree
laws for themselves and now not for me;
And if my methods aren't as theirs
let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
but when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, they usually
need only appear the opposite direction.
But no, they'll not; they must nonetheless
Wrest their neighbor to their will,
And make me dance as they wish
With penitentiary and gallows and hell-hearth.
And the way am I to face the chances
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In an international I on no account made.
They are going to be grasp, proper or mistaken;
though both are silly, both are robust.
And considering the fact that, my soul, we can not fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
preserve we must, if preserve we can,
These foreign legal guidelines of God and man.