God’s Funeral
“When George Eliot complimented [Herbert] Spencer on the
lack of wrinkles on his forehead, he replied that nothing had
ever really puzzled him” —God’s Funeral, A.N. Wilson
“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions
of man” —G. K. Chesterton
How smooth the forehead, sharp the wit
That’s never had a problem with
Explaining goodness, or piles of shit,
Or felt the mystery of myth.
A tonic for the ages—cure
For maladies, ladies lament,
Etched upon their foreheads. Sure,
Men, too, abhor those wavy dents
Which show virility’s recess:
Simply, in hubris-fashion, say,
‘There are no puzzles—I am blessed.’
See signs of age wither away!
If only… for no gods are mocked
As desolate, depressed, alone,
Poor Spencer found—death had him clocked;
Hell cared less for the books he’d done.
Along with other sages then,
‘We don’t need God and God is dead,’
They bleated—goats stuck in a pen
By some God to destruction led.
Whose funeral, and who has died?
Whose ideas really still have sway?
Who’s heard of Spencer and his pride?
Let’s solve the puzzle, live today.
James Sale has had over 50 books published, most recently, “Mapping Motivation for Top Performing Teams” (Routledge, 2021). He has been nominated by The Hong Kong Review for the 2022 Pushcart Prize for poetry, has won first prize in The Society of Classical Poets 2017 annual competition, and performed in New York in 2019. He is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times. His most recent poetry collection is DoorWay. For more information about the author, and about his Dante project, visit https://englishcantos.home.blog. To subscribe to his brief, free and monthly poetry newsletter, contact him at [email protected].
I know that Spencer was extremely popular in his own day, and may have been the first to speak of “the survival of the fittest.” Unlike most late Victorians, he was extremely anti-imperialist. He seems to have fallen out of favor soon after his death.
I like the ABAB tetrameter couplets — always good for attack.