Life
Ever the undiscouraged, resolute, struggling soul of man;(Have former armies fail’d? then we send fresh armies—and fresh again;)Ever the grappled mystery of all earth’s ages old or new;Ever the eager eyes, hurrahs, the welcome-clapping hands, the loudapplause;Ever the soul dissatisfied, curious, unconvinced at last;Struggling to-day the same—battling the same.
“Going Somewhere”
My science-friend, my noblest woman-friend,(Now buried in an English grave—and this a memory-leaf for her dear sake,)Ended our talk—“The sum, concluding all we know of old or modernlearning, intuitions deep,“Of all Geologies—Histories—of all Astronomy—of Evolution,Metaphysics all,“Is, that we all are onward, onward, speeding slowly, surely bettering,“Life, life an endless march, an endless army, (no halt, but it isduly over,)“The world, the race, the soul—in space and time the universes,“All bound as is befitting each—all surely going somewhere.”