These things shall be!

Sad heart, what will the future bring

To happier men when we are gone?

What golden days shall dawn for them,

Transcending all we gaze upon?

Will our long strife be laid at rest,

The warfare of our blind desires

Be merged in a perpetual peace,

And love illume but harmless fires?

Shall faith released from forms that chain

And freeze the spirit while we pray,

Expect with calm and ardent eyes

The morning of death's brighter day? --

These things shall be! A loftier race

Than e'er the world hath known shall rise

With flame of freedom in their souls

And light of science in their eyes.

They shall be pure from fraud, and know

The names of priest and king no more;

For them no placeman's hand shall hold

The balances of peace and war.

They shall be gentle, brave, and strong,

To spill no drop of blood, but dare

All that may plant man's lordship firm

On earth and fire and sea and air.

Nation with nation, land with land,

Inarmed shall live as comrades free;

In every heart and brain shall throb

The pulse of one fraternity.

They shall be simple in their homes,

And splendid in their public ways,

Filling the mansions of the state

With music and with hymns of praise.

In aisles majestic, halls of pride,

Groves, gardens, baths, and galleries,

Manhood and youth and age shall meet

To grow by converse inly wise.

Woman shall be man's mate and peer

In all things strong and fair and good,

Still wearing on her brows the crown

Of sinless sacred motherhood.

High friendship, hitherto unknown,

Or by great poets half divined,

Shall burn, a steadfast star, within

The calm clear ether of the mind.

Man shall love man with heart as pure

And fervent as the young-eyed joys

Who chaunt their heavenly songs before

God's face with undiscordant noise.

New arts shall bloom of loftier mould,

And mightier music thrill the skies,

And every life shall be a song,

When all the earth is paradise.

There shall be no more sin, no shame,

Though pain and passion may not die;

For man shall be at one with God

In bonds of firm necessity.

These things -- they are no dream -- shall be

For happier men when we are gone:

Those golden days for them shall dawn,

Transcending aught we gaze upon.