Andromeda, and Other Poems/The World's Age

by Charles Kingsley

THE WORLD'S AGE

i.
Who will say the world is dying?
 Who will say our prime is past?
Sparks from Heaven, within us lying,
 Flash, and will flash till the last.
Fools! who fancy Christ mistaken;
 Man a tool to buy and sell;
Earth a failure, God-forsaken,
 Anteroom of Hell.

ii.
Still the race of Hero-spirits
 Pass the lamp from hand to hand;
Age from age the Words inherits—
 'Wife, and Child, and Fatherland.'
Still the youthful hunter gathers
 Fiery joy from wold and wood;
He will dare as dared his fathers
 Give him cause as good.

iii.
While a slave bewails his fetters;
 While an orphan pleads in vain;
While an infant lisps his letters,
 Heir of all the ages' gain;
While a lip grows ripe for kissing;
 While a moan from man is wrung;
Know, by every want and blessing,
 That the world is young.