The New World

NOW is the time of the splendour of Youth and Death. The spirit of man grows grander than men knew. The unbearable burden is borne, the impossible done; Though harder is yet to do Before this agony end, and that be won We seek through blinding battle, in choking breath,— The New World, seen in vision! Land of lands, In the midst of storms that desolate and divide, In the hour of the breaking heart, O far-descried, You build our courage, you hold up our hands.

Men of America, you that march to-day Through roaring London, supple and lean of limb, Glimpsed in the crowd I saw you, and in your eye Something alert and grim, As knowing on what stern call you march away To the wrestle of nations; saw your heads held high And, that same moment, far in a glittering beam High over old and storied Westminster The Stars and Stripes with England's flag astir, Sisterly twined and proud on the air astream.

Men of America, what do you see? Is it old Towers of fame and grandeur time-resigned? The frost of custom's backward-gazing thought? Seek closer! You shall find Miracles hour by hour in silence wrought; Births, and awakenings; dyings never tolled; Invisible crumble and fall of prison-bars. O, wheresoever his home, new or decayed, Man is older than all the things he has made And yet the youngest spirit beneath the stars.

Rock-cradled, white, and soaring out of the sea, I behold again the fabulous city arise, Manhattan! Queen of thronged and restless bays And of daring ships is she. O lands beyond, that into the sunset gaze, Limitless, teeming continent of surmise! I drink again that diamond air, I thrill To the lure of a wonder more than the wondrous past, And see before me ages yet more vast Rising, to challenge heart and mind and will.

What sailed they out to seek, who of old came To that bare earth and wild, unhistoried coast? Not gold, nor granaries, nay, nor a halcyon ease For the weary and tempest-tost: The unshaken soul they sought, possessed in peace What seek we now, and hazard all on the aim? In the heart of man is the undiscovered earth Whose hope's our compass; sweet with glorious passion Of men's goodwill; a world to forge and fashion Worthy the things we have seen and brought to birth.