Solo
1: Came one day to the Judgment Bar,
Roused by trumpet’s warning;
Rose up lightly, but with some
surprise,
Looking around him and rubbing his
eyes.
All: (For he’d done his share of toiling and of
weeping
And the Lord had left him a long time
sleeping.)
Solo
2: “
All: the Lord’s voice spoke,
Solo 2: “You’ve had your slumber and it’s time
you woke.
The years are mounting,
The centuries hum,
And every soul’s accounting
Is bound to come.”
All: And He signed to
Solo 2: “Fetch the Final Record that is filed in
‘C.’”
While the Lord went thumbing
through the Golden Book,
While the angels harped with
suitable decorum
And the saints sat around in
a haloed quorum
And the stars went whirling
in an endless dance.
Said
Solo 3: “I’ll take my chance.
A man’s but human when he sails the seas,
But You know I stuck by
my theories.
A queen had the credit and a king had the loot,
But I reached the
All:
Solo
2: “The sons of
Pitiful their follies of the future
and the past,
But even My
patience has an end at last.
You steered a passage toward the
setting sun –
Regard the work that your had has done.”
All: (
Solo
2: “Must I forgive you fro this
mistake?
“I was ever vext
by my peopled planet.
There’s always been trouble since
In
Trouble and sorrow and wars and pain –
Never any quietude, never any peace
Solo
2: In
Half the world in turmoil, with woe
bent double!
Yes you must go discovering a
brand-new trouble.”
All: The winds from the spheres grew shrill and
loud.
Now shivered the saints anointed.
And looked where the
Master pointed.
Solo
2: “Sailor,”
All: said the Lord,
Solo
2: four hundred years
This land has been a crying, a clamor
in My ears,
While you lay sleeping till the
Judgment Day,
Now rise and answer for the
All: From the golden pavement, from the gateway
pearled,
He saw the mountains, and he saw the
sea,
He saw
He saw the cities and the fields of
grain,
And he heard the voice of the Lord
complain:
Solo
2: “Behold the things that you
brought to pass:
The great towns bellowing in tones of
brass;
Billboards rising where the wild deer
wandered,
The earth despoiled and the forests
squandered;
Men looking down where My hills used to look up;
Swing bands squealing on a national
hookup;
Strikes and riots
And bursting dams;
Solo
2:
And subway jams;
A thousand new religions shouting out
their wares;
Floods and dust bowls and two World
Fairs;
Politics and panics and boys in
breadlines,
And everywhere the sound of their
shrieking headlines.
The heroes dead and the giants
departed.
Now rise and answer for the thing you
started!”
All:
Stood up straight at
the Judgment Bar.
He bowed to
He bowed to the Great White
Throne.
Then
In a reasonable tone:
Solo
3: “I saw the mountains, I saw the
plain,
I saw the place where my ships had
lain,
And reaching northward till time took
flight,
There was
I heard the tumult, I heard the clamor,
The hiss of the rivet, the noise of the hammer,
The speeches and the shouting and the sound of
cheers
And , Lord, it was strange
to my sleep-filled ears.
But I saw such wonders and I heard such mirth
As I never knew when I walked on earth!
“A proud young race and their children and their
sires,
Dwelling in their houses, working at their fires;
And some were weeping,
And
some were old,
And some were sleeping,
Hungry
and cold,
And some were wailing for the times askew,
But, Lord, it was better than the world I knew.
“Tanned and tall were their sons and their
daughters.
They had won the valleys, they had tamed the waters.
I saw them soaring
Through the conquered air.
Their
Everywhere.
Strong their buildings and gtheir
bridges stood.
The land was fertile and the harvests good.
And a hundred million people
Lived in brotherhood.
All: The Jew and the Gentile had joined their
labor.
And none there feared to address his
neighbor.
And there was order
And the guns had died
Along the border,
A continent
wide.
Solo
3: “And freedom still on their
hilltops hovered.
Lord, I have seen what my ships
discovered.
Let whirlwind shake it, let lightning
strike it.
I have looked on this land, and, Lord,
I like it.”
All: In the
Then the watching angels saw
And he chuckled.
Solo
2: “There’s sense in a sailor lad.
It’s a noisy nation, but it’s not so
bad.
You rose in heaven
And you had your say.
And you are foregiven
For the
All: Oh, there was rejoicing on the upmost star
When