THE ATOM
THE following verses, by the nonagenarian Cambridge poet, Mr. Thomas Thornely, formerly Fellow of Trinity Hall, deserve a high place among predictions of atomic warfare. They appear in the author's volume of collected poems, published in 1939, but were written some years earlier.
Wake not the imprisoned power that sleeps Unknown, or dimly guessed, in thee! Thine awful secret Nature keeps, And pales, when stealthy Science creeps Towards that beleaguered mystery.
Well may she start and desperate strain To thrust the bold besiegers back; If they that citadel should gain, What grisly shapes of death and pain May rise and follow in their track!
The power that warring atoms yield Man has to guiltiest purpose turned. Too soon the wonder was revealed, Earth flames in one red battlefield; Could but that lesson be unlearned!
The last dread secret, Nature keep!
Add not to man's tumultuous woes; Till war and hate are laid to sleep, Keep those grim forces buried deep, That in thine atoms still repose. T. THORNELY.
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