Classic Poem

Like a timeless god of old
With one glance I can behold
East and West and men between
On the pleasant mortal scene.

Looking at them from above
I can see them as they move,
I can tell where they will go,
Where they're coming from I know.

I who with a single glance
See them going and advance
Can perceive where they are winning,
See the End in the Beginning;

See alternate valleys gleam
Each one with its little stream,
And the undulant, immense,
Free, American expanse;

See the rivers on the plain
Break to catch the light again;
And the towns and villages
Islanded by fields and trees;

And I make a little prayer
As I see the people there,
For I have not quite forgot
That I share the mortal lot.

God, on Whom Time never bears
Disregard not mortal years,
For a year to men may be
Precious as eternity.

Look on men in thorpe and town
Walled between the Dawn and Down
And remember that their cares
Overbalance pleasant years.

Think, when looking through the clouds
At their little streams and woods,
Streams and woods to earthly eyes
May present a paradise.

Leave them happy on the earth,
Relative to death and birth
Till, in peace, their minds transcend
The Beginning and the End.