Today I’m featuring a 105-year-old poem illustrating the timelessness of the written word. Composed by William Herbert Carruth in 1920, it explores the concept of the divine through various natural and human experiences. It reflects the scientific and philosophical debates of its time and contrasts the theory of evolution with religious belief. Enjoy! 

A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jellyfish and a saurian,
And caves where the cave-men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty
And a face turned from the clod —
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.

A haze on the far horizon,

The finite tender sky,

The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields

And the wild geese sailing high;

And all over upland and lowland

The charm of the goldenrod–

Some of us call it Autumn,

And others call it God.

Like tides on a crescent sea beach,

When the moon is new and thin,

Into our hearts high yearnings

Come welling and surging in;

Come from the mystic ocean

Whose rim no foot has trod–

Some of us call it Longing,

And others call it God.

A picket frozen on duty,

A mother starved for her brood,

Socrates drinking the hemlock,

And Jesus on the rood;

And millions who, humble and nameless,

The straight, hard pathway plod–

Some call it Consecration,

And others call it God.

Born in Kansas in 1859, William Herbert Carruth was an American educator and poet who received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Kansas in the 1880s. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1893. He was a Professor of German and English at KU from 1879 to 1913. He died in 1924 at age 65.

We inherited this tattered, tiny, teal book from one of Bill’s aunts, who passed in 2014. I selected it for its age, color, and subject matter. Upon further reflection, I realized that the Carruth and Leach families are Kansas natives. Carruth was described in 1918 as “a leading linguistic scholar of the West” by  William Connelly, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society. My beloved is a Professor Emeritus of the English department at Florida Tech and a poet. And therein the similarities end.

I love these illustrations. Aren’t they grand?  

What did you think of Carruth’s poem? 

Categories: Poetry Writing

Tagged as: 1920 poem antique book beauty of nature evolution poem Faith inspiration literature nature poem poetry William H Carruth

Kathryne

Christian author and truth teller whose words make darkness tremble. Author of two non-fiction books at https://www.instagram.com/tattooedking_book/