Stephen Crane, “God Lay Dead in Heaven”

 God lay dead in heaven;
 Angels sang the hymn of the end;
 Purple winds went moaning,
 Their wings drip-dripping
 With blood
 That fell upon the earth.
 It, groaning thing,
 Turned black and sank.
 Then from the far caverns
 Of dead sins
 Came monsters, livid with desire.
 They fought,
 Wrangled over the world,
 A morsel.
 But of all sadness this was sad —
 A woman’s arms tried to shield
 The head of a sleeping man
 From the jaws of the final beast.