Classic Poem

Sing pæans over the past!
We bury the dead years tenderly,
To find them again in eternity,
All safe in its circle vast.
Sing pæans over the past!

Farewell, farewell to the Old!
Beneath the arches, and one by one,
From sun to shade and from shade to sun,
We pass, and the years are told.
Farewell, farewell to the Old.

And hail, all hail to the New!
The future lies like a world new born,
All steeped in sunshine and mists of morn,
And arch'd with a cloudless blue.
All hail, all hail to the New!

All things, all things are yours!
The spoil of nations, the arts sublime
That arch the ages from eldest time,
The Word that for aye endures,—
All things, all things are yours!

Arise and conquer the land!
Not one shall fail in the march of life;
Not one shall fall in the hour of strife
Who trusts in the Lord's right hand.
Arise and conquer the land!

The Lord shall sever the sea!
And open a way in the wilderness,
To faith that follows—to feet that press
On, into the great To-Be!
The Lord shall sever the sea!