Classic Poem

The yeast of evolution was dropped into the welter
Of the drifting sea of chaos long ago;
And then the cloud-shapes gathered and the world-stuff floated mistlike,
Till the pulp of stars was hardened and the worlds began to grow.

And the yeast of evolution worked upon the plastic planets,
And our fire-world bubbled mountains to the sky,
And our continents emerging shook the sea from off their highlands,
And the red-jawed dragons wallowed where all life but theirs would die.

And the yeast of evolution worked into the blood of dragons,
And they perished and their bellowing died away;
And the slowly mellowing cycles rolled their slow-paced revolutions,
And the primal Man came forward and stood naked to the day.

And the yeast of evolution grew within his aimless purpose,
And the hairy savage battled, clan with clan,
Till the strong-armed brute grew conscious of a deeper life within him,
And the soul of man grew conscious and revealed itself to man.

Then the yeast of evolution works its great amelioration,
And the World Tree sheds its blossoms through the gloom,
Till it flowers into Moses, Homer, Plato, Dante, Shakespeare,—
Flowers prophecies of flowers that are yet to burst in bloom.

For the yeast of evolution works, as hitherto, forever;
We are in the morning hours of our day;
Down the ever-widening vista whose long stretches end in twilight
We shall come on new perfections, meet new music on the way.

Yea, the yeast of evolution works, as hitherto, forever;
For are now the wallowing dragons in their slime;
Ah, but farther, farther, farther, is the long, long way before us,
We shall meet a loftier music down the thoroughfare of time.