This is an adaptation of the poem "Hymn Of Breaking Strain" by Rudyard Kipling (1935)
Em G A C
The careful text-books measure - Let all who build beware!
Em G A C
The load, the shock, the pressure material can bear:
Em Am C D Em
So, when the buckled girder lets down the grinding span
Em Am C D Em
The blame of loss, or murder, is laid upon the man
C D Em
Not on the Steel - the Man!
Em G A C
But, in our daily dealing with stone and steel, we find
Em G A C
The Gods have no such feeling of justice toward mankind
Em Am C D Em
To no set gauge they make us, for no laid course prepare
Em Am C D Em
In time they overtake us with loads we cannot bear:
C D Em
Too merciless to bear
Em G A C
The prudent text-books give it in tables at the end
Em G A C
The stress that shears a rivet, or makes a tie-bar bend
Em Am C D Em
What traffic wrecks macadam - what concrete should endure
Em Am C D Em
But we, poor Sons of Adam, have no such literature
C D Em
To warn us or make sure!
Em G A C
We hold all Earth to plunder - all Time and Space as well
Em G A C
Too wonder-stale to wonder at each new miracle
Em Am C D Em
Till in the mid-illusion of Godhood 'neath our hand
Em Am C D Em
Falls multiple confusion on all we did or planned
C D Em
The mighty works we planned
Em G A C
We only in Creation - how much luckier the bridge and rail!
Em G A C
Abide the twin damnation: to fail and know we fail
Em Am C D Em
Yet we - by which sole token we know we once were Gods
Em Am C D Em
Take shame in being broken, however great the odds
C D Em
The Burden or the Odds
Em G A C
Oh, veiled and secret Power, whose paths we seek in vain
Em G A C
Be with us in our hour of overthrow and pain
Em Am C D Em
That we - by which sure token we know Thy ways are true
Em Am Em Am
In spite of being broken, or because of being broken
C D Em
Rise up and build anew
C D Em
Stand up and build anew!