Classic Poem

I had a dream: Columbia the Great,
The Arbitress of Nations had prevailed.
From Europe trains crossed bridge-spanned Behrings's Strait
And ships through Panama from South Seas sailed.
Through atmospheric tubes the mail and freight
Skimmed hill and dale and loftiest mountains scaled;
Threading the richest cities, on they went,
And in a few hours crossed the continent.

I saw our fleets guarding a hundred seas,
All with unshotted guns ride proudly home;
I saw the hosts that watch our liberties
By land afar from bloodless conquest come.
And shouts of welcome then rose on the breeze,
With bells and whistles in uproarous hum;
And Peace's multitudes went singing, streaming
Through leagues of bunting, and of standards gleaming.

And not a home, a mansion or a hut
In all the land, but heard the call that day.
From plainsman's ranch and miner's cabin shut
In forest depths and mountain far away,
The sons of Freedom came, and cities put
Their millions forth to swell the concourse gay.
It was a jubilee of joy and tears:
Columbia had reigned a thousand years!

The Sphinx of Race Hate looked into the past,
Unheeded as the cheering throngs went by
In thund'rous unison, a concourse vast,
Proclaimed the triumphing of Liberty.
The walls of Wrong had gone down at the blast
Of Truth's oncoming trumpets; Earth and Sky
Attesting the inexorable plan,
That all men shall arise in raising man.

And then I saw that Toil need not sweat blood;
But be reduced to healthful exercise.
Yet mankind had sufficiency of food,
That, barring avarice, all had full supplies
For mind and body. Then I understood —
The State-fixed bounds for corporate Enterprise,
Adjusting all disputes 'twixt Capital
And Labor fairly — Law deciding all.

I saw the children cared for by the State,
As well as by their parents — that, indeed,
The nation held first claim in all the great
Concerns of health and training — man's first need.
I saw that man must rule and regulate
His home by love, and never by a creed:
That health, intelligence, Morality,
Saved in the child, safeguarded Liberty.

And so, no children roamed the streets at will,
In hungry shoals to swarm the streams of Time;
But wise apprenticeships restrained them till
They had escaped the snares of early crime,
And reached safe heights of industry and skill;
And there was not allowed a wedding chime
When there was presence of a known disease,
Hence, no divorces, no adulteries.

I saw a city in the setting sun,
Superb and vast, that crowned a noble height;
It was the city of the Yellowstone.
In New World greatness, from its ancient site
Removed — the future's Washington.
And guarded round, in its unconquered might,
By leagues of fortress, was a populace
Unnumbered, drawn from ev'ry human race.

And then I stood within a stately hall;
Ten thousand brilliant dancers thronged the floor;
'Twas at the Nation's great Inaugural,
And there were guests from home and foreign shore —
Statesmen and epauleted warriors tall,
Churchmen of note, and far-famed men of lore,
All in the sunny light of woman's love,
With airs of valor, like the gods, they move.

On swept the throngs, in eddies whirled and flowed
Through flow'ry aisles and flag-hung corridors;
On, on, while Fortune's trophies flashed and glowed
'Neath lamps that on the tessellated floors
Poured floods of light; and strangers proudly strode
Among admiring groups — the guests of our fair shores —
While hid in labyrinths of shrubs and flowers,
Enchanting strains beguiled the fleeting hours.

There from the South I saw the blue-eyed blonde,
And from the North the Junoesque brunette;
From Hawaii the olive maiden fond,
The dainty Cuban with her eyes of jet —
And Octoroon whose beauty was beyond
Description, in a swirl of glory met,
Through mazy depths of flow'rs and lace to stream —
A symphony of lovely forms — My Dream.