EASTER ISLAND

                    On Easter Island, archeologists have learned
                    At last how those great monoliths were walked
                    As side by side the guy ropes slowly turned
                    And wobbled them along the course they stalked
                   Till each one took its place within the line
                   Of effigies in their rude pantheon
                   To represent their sense of the divine
                   Casting long shadows in the brightening dawn.
                   Yet ruefully those deities had failed
                   To save them once their timber was all burned,
                   When crops were gone and boats no longer sailed
                   And all the universe seemed unconcerned.
                        So when large ships arrived on Easter day,
                        They found old gods but no one left to pray.

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