The Horse-Shoes

Along a mile of mud the tide - Comes flooding in full might,
And through it thrust a thousand heads With eyes but never sight.
Drab creatures crawl into the light Whose heads and trunks are one
And lift their wide and patient eyes Sightless to the sun.
No holier creatures ever raised
Useless eyes to plead For the love of him who sowed
The universe with seed.
Unanswered through the ages still
The horse-shoes seek the air,
Before Troy was, or Nineveh,
These heads were raised in prayer.
Aeons since, some creeping thing
Came as they come now And never turned back to the sea
To hide its daring brow.
Other creatures came to pray
And won the light for friend,
Grew eyes, and set their feet upon
The ladder with no end.
Perhaps they will themselves one day
Know the worlds above.
Patience is on them like a crown
And the scourge of love.