Classic Poem

Servant of Man, well done!
Thy war of Peace is won.
The dream of continents five and centuries four
Is dream no more.

Now to new visions, than the old
More wonderful and bold.
Let sage and seer
Into the dark more confidently peer,
To find the boon in every shape of fear,
The cure that Nature holds for every hurt.
Now let some stripling, venturous and alert,
Trailing a wilder thought
Than Science yet has sought,
Startle shy Knowledge from her inner lair.
Our best, that first was but a castle in the air,
Let it be strong as fair.
Come true all happy tales to children told,
And cloth-of-frieze be turned to cloth-of-gold.
Let the imprisoned mind
But beat upon its bars, 't will find
The painted barriers made to break, not bind.
Man is Imagination's only heir:
His messengers of Dream and Dare
He launches from the teeming port of Night
To overtake the flight
Of fleet-winged Progress, laden with new might,
Which to the foremost she lets fall,
The prize of one, the wealth of all.

Who can foretell what blessing may not hap
From this one hair-breadth line upon the map?
What treasure have we was not first a dream?
Seeing the Future but in flash and gleam,
Doubt we To-morrow? On the once-veiled track
Of opulent Yesterday, look back!
The arsenal of our courage is the Past —
The unforgotten great that did not yield,
The unremembered many left upon the field,
Each loyal to his vision to the last.