As we walked through the empty streets at night 
We witnessed more than we wanted to see. 
Calling out to people standing there about 
We experienced a joint vision of light: 
A halo emerged from cloaking black out 
That brought with it a sudden, doubting fright. 

The hairs upon my arms and neck did stand  
Stock straight. I remembered the word of God. 
It seemed to make my eyes widen: the fear. 
Could I be in the presence of something grand? 
A wholly Holy vision that drew near, 
It showed us all a future man-made wasteland. 

And at the heart our flaming destruction 
Sat a bloated shape, hideous in form. 
It smiled in self-satisfied felicity, 
Basking in disaster of its construction. 
It poisoned the world with toxicity. 
Its false words and mis-promised seduction. 

And we tore away from the light in self-doubt 
Unable to shed the vision's horror. 
With falsehood the source of impending doom 
We envisioned the face that would bring about 
The end of the world, our eternal tomb, 
A scorched earth with the never ending drought. 

A call to arms for all the God-fearing! 
People now rise against the tyranny 
That sits on high like a squatting old toad, 
Squashing our freedom with misguided sneering. 
Let faith and good kinship lighten the load, 
Bring us together with hope persevering.

Robert Southey, English poet, was born today in 1774.

William Blake, English poet, painter and printer, died on this day in 1827.