Discontent, Divine
Discontent can be a divine impulse driving people toward truth and better things.
An unidentified author writes thus of discontent:
When the world was formed and the morning stars Upon their paths were sent, The loftiest-browed of the angels was named The Angel of Discontent.
And he dwelt with man in the caves of the hills, Where the crested serpent stings, And the tiger tears and the she-wolf howls, And he told of better things.
And he led man forth to the towered town, And forth to the fields of corn; And he told of the ampler work ahead For which the race was born.
And he whispers to men of those hills he sees In the blush of the golden west; And they look to the light of his lifted eye And they hate the name of rest.
In the light of that eye doth the slave behold A hope that is high and brave, And the madness of war comes into his blood For he knows himself a slave.
The serfs of wrong in the light of that eye March on with victorious songs; For the strength of their right comes into their hearts When they behold their wrongs.
’Tis by the light of that lifted eye That error’s mists are rent-- A guide to the table-land of Truth Is the Angel of Discontent.
And still he looks with his lifted eye, And his glance is far away On a light that shines on the glimmering hills Of a diviner day. (Text.)