Hymn To Breaking Strain

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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!

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But, in our daily dealing with stone and steel, we find
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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
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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!

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We hold all Earth to plunder - all Time and Space as well
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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!
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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

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Oh, veiled and secret Power, whose paths we seek in vain
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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!