I SAT within my tranquil room; The twilight shadows sank and rose With slowly flickering motions, waved Grotesquely through the dusk repose; There came a sudden thought to me, Which thrilled the spirit, flushed the brow -- A dream of what our world would be A thousand years from now! If science on her heavenward search, Rolling the stellar charts apart, Or delving hour by hour to win The secrets of earth's inmost heart -- If that her future apes her past, To what new marvels men must bow, Marvels of land, and air, and sea, A thousand years from now! If empires hold their wonted course, And blind republics will not stay To count the cost of laws which lead Unerring to the State's decay -- What changes vast of realm and rule, The low upraised, the proud laid low, Shall greet the unborn ages still, A thousand years from now! Our creeds may change with mellowed times Of nobler hope, and love increased, And some new Advent flood the world In glory from the haunted East -- While souls on loftier heights of faith May mark the mystic pathway grow Clearer between their stand and heaven's, A thousand years from now! These things @3may be!@1 but what, perforce, @3Must@1 with the ruthless epochs pass? The millions' breath, the centuries' pomp, Sure as the wane of flowers or grass; The earth so rich in tombs to-day, There scarce seems space for death to sow, Who, who shall count her churchyard wealth A thousand years from now? And we -- poor waifs! whose life-term seems, When matched with @3after@1 and @3before@1, Brief as a summer wind's, or wave's, Breaking its frail heart on the shore, We -- human toys -- that Fate sets up To smite, or -- spare I marvel how These souls shall fare, in what strange sphere, A thousand years from now? Too vague, too faint for mortal ken That far, phantasmal future lies; But sweet! one sacred truth I read, Just kindling in your tear-dimmed eyes, That states may rise, and states may set, With age earth's tottering pillars bow, But hearts like ours can ne'er forget, And though we know not @3where@1, nor @3how@1, Our conscious love shall blossom yet, A thousand years from now! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CLOSING TIME AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO by KAREN SWENSON HILL-SIDE TREE by MAXWELL BODENHEIM NO COMING TO GOD WITHOUT CHRIST by ROBERT HERRICK THE GIFT by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL BASE DETAILS by SIEGFRIED SASSOON OUR HERITAGE by ISIDORE G. ASCHER EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 14. THE POWERFUL ATTRACTION by PHILIP AYRES |