1. ۱1
2. ۲COME, said the Muse,
3. ۳Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted,
4. ۴Sing me the Universal.
5. ۵
6. ۶In this broad Earth of ours,
7. ۷Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
8. ۸Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
9. ۹Nestles the seed Perfection.
10. ۱۰
11. ۱۱By every life a share, or more or less,
12. ۱۲None born but it is born—conceal’d or unconceal’d, the seed is waiting.
13. ۱۳
14. ۱۴2
15. ۱۵Lo! keen-eyed, towering Science!
16. ۱۶As from tall peaks the Modern overlooking,
17. ۱۷Successive, absolute fiats issuing.
18. ۱۸
19. ۱۹Yet again, lo! the Soul—above all science;
20. ۲۰For it, has History gather’d like a husk around the globe;
21. ۲۱For it, the entire star-myriads roll through the sky.
22. ۲۲
23. ۲۳In spiral roads, by long detours,
24. ۲۴(As a much-tacking ship upon the sea,)
25. ۲۵For it, the partial to the permanent flowing,
26. ۲۶For it, the Real to the Ideal tends.
27. ۲۷
28. ۲۸For it, the mystic evolution;
29. ۲۹Not the right only justified—what we call evil also justified.
30. ۳۰
31. ۳۱Forth from their masks, no matter what,
32. ۳۲From the huge, festering trunk—from craft and guile and tears,
33. ۳۳Health to emerge, and joy—joy universal.
34. ۳۴
35. ۳۵Out of the bulk, the morbid and the shallow,
36. ۳۶Out of the bad majority—the varied, countless frauds of men and States,
37. ۳۷
38. ۳۸Electric, antiseptic yet—cleaving, suffusing all,
39. ۳۹Only the good is universal.
40. ۴۰
41. ۴۱3
42. ۴۲Over the mountain growths, disease and sorrow,
43. ۴۳An uncaught bird is ever hovering, hovering,
44. ۴۴High in the purer, happier air.
45. ۴۵
46. ۴۶From imperfection’s murkiest cloud,
47. ۴۷Darts always forth one ray of perfect light,
48. ۴۸One flash of Heaven’s glory.
49. ۴۹
50. ۵۰To fashion’s, custom’s discord,
51. ۵۱To the mad Babel-din, the deafening orgies,
52. ۵۲Soothing each lull, a strain is heard, just heard,
53. ۵۳From some far shore, the final chorus sounding.
54. ۵۴
55. ۵۵4
56. ۵۶O the blest eyes! the happy hearts!
57. ۵۷That see—that know the guiding thread so fine,
58. ۵۸Along the mighty labyrinth!
59. ۵۹
60. ۶۰5
61. ۶۱And thou, America!
62. ۶۲For the Scheme’s culmination—its Thought, and its Reality,
63. ۶۳For these, (not for thyself,) Thou hast arrived.
64. ۶۴
65. ۶۵Thou too surroundest all;
66. ۶۶Embracing, carrying, welcoming all, Thou too, by pathways broad and new,
67. ۶۷To the Ideal tendest.
68. ۶۸
69. ۶۹The measur’d faiths of other lands—the grandeurs of the past,
70. ۷۰Are not for Thee—but grandeurs of Thine own;
71. ۷۱Deific faiths and amplitudes, absorbing, comprehending all,
72. ۷۲All eligible to all.
73. ۷۳
74. ۷۴All, all for Immortality!
75. ۷۵Love, like the light, silently wrapping all!
76. ۷۶Nature’s amelioration blessing all!
77. ۷۷The blossoms, fruits of ages—orchards divine and certain;
78. ۷۸Forms, objects, growths, humanities, to spiritual Images ripening.
79. ۷۹
80. ۸۰6
81. ۸۱Give me, O God, to sing that thought!
82. ۸۲Give me—give him or her I love, this quenchless faith
83. ۸۳In Thy ensemble. Whatever else withheld, withhold not from us,
84. ۸۴Belief in plan of Thee enclosed in Time and Space;
85. ۸۵Health, peace, salvation universal.
86. ۸۶
87. ۸۷Is it a dream?
88. ۸۸Nay, but the lack of it the dream,
89. ۸۹And, failing it, life’s lore and wealth a dream,
90. ۹۰And all the world a dream.