ntless ships,
And anthems in new tongues I hear saluting me.
TO think of time—of all that retrospection,
To think of to?day, and the ages continued henceforward.
Have you guess'd you yourself would not continue?
Have you dreaded these earth?beetles?
Have you fear'd the future would be nothing to you?
Is to?day nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing?
If the future is nothing they are just as surely nothing.
To think that the sun rose in the
east—that men and women were
al,alive—that every thing was alive,
To think that you and I did not see,
feel bear our part,
To think that we are now here and bear our part.
To think the thought of death merged
in the thought of materials,
To think of all these wonders of city
and country, and others taking
great interest in them, and we taking no interest in them.
To think how eager we are in building our houses,
To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indifferent.
(I see one building the house that serves him a few years, or
seventy or eighty years at most,
I see one building the house that serves him longer than that.)
Slow?moving and black lines creep over the whole earth—they never
cease—they are the burial lines,
He that was President was buried, and he that is now President shall
surely be buried.
What will be will be well, for what is is well,
To take interest is well, and not to take interest shall be well.