The Secret of Power

We weary at the measure of our task
    More than in doing, and the visioned length
    Of our great journey more consumes the strength
Than the one step by step the moments ask.
One pulse is all of life, one second’s beat
    The utmost impact of eternity;
The insistent drop gives all the tidal sea,    
The immanent ray the whole sun’s conquering heat.
Great triumphs are the work of each true blow
    Struck now, and now, the exhaustless repetend
    Of Power’s least unit, that involves no end
Because it is, eternal in its now!
    Move only this next atom by thy hand,
And the great world shall swing at thy command!

It was not hard to shoot one tiny ray
    Up the dark slope of morning; but, anon,
    Broad splendors flooded the black gulf, and run
Over the steep horizons with new day!
It were no task to drop along thy way
    Some living seed-thought ripened in that sun
    That shines unsettling when our days are done;
But in some glorious future, Nations may
Sit down in peaceful shadow ‘neath the boughs
    Of a great oak of righteous Liberty,
    Sown by the joyous song-bird of the free
On his glad flight from humble house to house.
Be faithful to this moment ever this,
And thou shalt stand when time has melted to the abyss!