The geni waits but my command
To raise me, and, as swift as thought,
Bear me abroad, from land to land,
Wherever I would fain be brought.
Amid the silent northern snows,
Or where Egyptian deserts burn,
Wherever man has been, he goes,
And tells me all I wish to learn.
He tells me how the stars had birth,
And how their wondrous cycles run,
Or places me beyond the earth,
Unharmed, upon the giant sun.
Through him I learn what Science knows,
How this vast universe began;
How life, from mean beginnings, rose
High as God’s noblest creature, man.
On me dawns many a truth profound
About the swinging earth I tread,
That it is one vast burying ground,
The living living through the dead,
That where once flowed the ocean’s tide,
Now stand the homes of countless souls;
That where once mountains rose in pride,
Billow on foaming billow rolls.
The geni stems the flood of time,
And bears me almost to its source;
Then as we float, bids scenes sublime
And sad and happy shore our course.
I see the tower of Babel rise,
With busy builders everywhere,
Up, ever up, towards the skies,
Spearing the azure depths of air.
I hear a voice from out a cloud,
And see the workmen making signs,—
How humble God can make the proud!
How easily mar man’s best designs!
I see the wild Light Tresses fall
In cruel waves on fated Rome,
And in an emperor’s audience hall
I see the jackals make their home.