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Origin of the Poem “When God Wants To Drill A Man”

Some others think it is a Christianized form of a poem originally written by an American poet Angela Morgan (1875-1957). Angela’s poem “When Nature Wants A Man” is found in pages 92-95 of her anthology Forward, March (1918),** published by John Lane Company, New York. The poem is as follows: In small part...
When Nature wants to take a man
And shake a man
And wake a man;
When Nature wants to make a man
To do the Future’s will;

When Nature wants to name a man
And fame a man
And tame a man;
When Nature wants to shame a man
To do his heavenly best . . .

Nature’s plan is wondrous kind
Could we understand her mind …
Fools are they who call her blind.
When his feet are torn and bleeding
Yet his spirit mounts unheeding,
All his higher powers speeding
Blazing newer paths and fine;
When the force that is divine
Leaps to challenge every failure and his ardour still is sweet
And love and hope are burning in the presence of defeat . . .
Lo, the crisis! Lo, the shout
That must call the leader out.
When the people need salvation
Doth he come to lead the nation . . .
Then doth Nature show her plan
When the world has found–a man!