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Lyric Poem · Peace

A man went before a strange God

by Stephen Crane

1A man went before a strange God —

2The God of many men, sadly wise.

3And the deity thundered loudly,

4Fat with rage, and puffing.

5"Kneel, mortal, and cringe

6And grovel and do homage

7To My Particularly Sublime Majesty."

8The man fled.

9Then the man went to another God —

10The God of his inner thoughts.

11And this one looked at him

12With soft eyes

13Lit with infinite comprehension,

14And said, "My poor child!"

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

“A man went before a strange God” by Stephen Crane — quilloak.com/poems/a-man-went-before-a-strange-god

Quick facts

Poem
A man went before a strange God
Poet
Stephen Crane
Length
14 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Peace, Childhood

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
14 lines · 3 stanzas of 1–7 lines
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Stephen Crane1871–1900
Source record
PoetryDBA man went before a strange God by stephen-crane, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 536dda9d019d7227…
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue
Lyric PoemPeaceChildhood

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