This was recently posted in the greatpoets community
And it reminded me how much I love Housman.
The Laws of God, The Laws of Man, by A.E. Housman
The laws of God, the laws of man
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbor to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man.
And it also reminded me of this wonderful quotation by the always-so-lovely Robert Bolt in one of my favourite plays, A Man for All Seasons. Sir Thomas More has an argument with his son-in-law, Roper, who suggests that More openly refuse to abide by the policies and laws of the land because they're corrupt. And More counters that he would give the devil the benefit of the law, for his own safety's sake:
"And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you-where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast-man’s laws, not God’s-and if you cut them down-and you’re just the man to do it-d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"
The Laws of God, The Laws of Man, by A.E. Housman
The laws of God, the laws of man
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbor to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man.
And it also reminded me of this wonderful quotation by the always-so-lovely Robert Bolt in one of my favourite plays, A Man for All Seasons. Sir Thomas More has an argument with his son-in-law, Roper, who suggests that More openly refuse to abide by the policies and laws of the land because they're corrupt. And More counters that he would give the devil the benefit of the law, for his own safety's sake:
"And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you-where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast-man’s laws, not God’s-and if you cut them down-and you’re just the man to do it-d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"