(Who Turned Renegade and Lived with the Indians)

By what appalling dim upheaval 
    Demolishing some kinder plan, 
Did you become incarnate evil 
    Wearing the livery of man?

Perhaps you hated cheeks of tallow,
    Dead eyes, and lineaments of chalk,
Until a beauty came to hallow
    Even the bloodiest tomahawk.

Perhaps you loathed your brothers’ features
    Pallid and pinched, or greasy-fat;
Perhaps you loved these alien creatures
    Clean muscled as a panther cat.

Did you believe that being cruel
    Was that which made their foreheads lift
So proudly, gave their eyes a jewel,
    And turned their padding footsteps swift?

As one by one our faiths are shaken
    Our hatreds fall; so mine for you.
Of course I think you were mistaken;
    But still, I see your point of view.