WALL

(Schleswig 5 January 2014)

Drums beat closer;
The rumble of gun-carriages rolls
Closer; the tramp of the marchers sounds
Closer.

In their hut listen
The widow, her daughter
And her grandson.  They feel
Their heartbeats.

But the boy reads
The hymn's desire:
For God to put around us
A wall.

If men built a wooden wall
Men could burn it.

They hear in the town
The yowls and bravado
Of war.

If men built a stone wall
Men could sap it.

They hear from the town
Musket, cannon
And scream.

If men built a steel wall
Men could slight it.

Silence.  In their huddled
Hut they hear only
The wind.

If God builds a wall
What can men do?

They venture out. No 
Sound but the wind; they see
God's wall.

For only He could hide
From the marauders' eyes
By that lofty drift of snow.


You'll get the story here: Story of our Hymns
And the Clemens von Brentano poem here:Die Gottesmauer
- in German, I'm afraid!