BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS: L’ENVOI
When Earth’s last picture
is painted, and the tubes are twisted and
dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest
critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it lie
down for an aeon or
two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall set
us to work anew!
And those that were good shall
be happy: they shall sit in a golden
chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with
brushes of comets’ hair;
They shall find real saints to draw from Magdalene,
Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never
be tired at all!
And only the Master shall praise us,
and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall
work for fame;
But each for the joy of the working, and each,
in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God
of Things as They Are!