My Triumph

The autumn-time has come;     On woods that dream of bloom,     And over purpling vines,     The low sun fainter shines.     The aster-flower is failing,     The hazels gold is paling;     Yet overhead more near     The eternal stars appear!     And present gratitude     Insures the futures good,     And for the things I see     I trust the things to be;     That in the paths untrod,     And the long days of God,     My feet shall still be led,     My heart be comforted.     O living friends who love me!     O dear ones gone above me!     Careless of other fame,     I leave to you my name.     Hide it from idle praises,     Save it from evil phrases     Why, when dear lips that spake it     Are dumb, should strangers wake it?     Let the thick curtain fall;     I better know than all     How little I have gained,     How vast the unattained.     Not by the page word-painted     Let life be banned or sainted     Deeper than written scroll     The colors of the soul.     Sweeter than any sung     My songs that found no tongue;     Nobler than any fact     My wish that failed of act.     Others shall sing the song,     Others shall right the wrong,     Finish what I begin,     And all I fail of win.     What matter, I or they?     Mine or anothers day,     So the right word be said     And life the sweeter made?     Hail to the coming singers     Hail to the brave light-bringers!     Forward I reach and share     All that they sing and dare.     The airs of heaven blow oer me;     A glory shines before me     Of what mankind shall be,     Pure, generous, brave, and free.     A dream of man and woman     Diviner but still human,     Solving the riddle old,     Shaping the Age of Gold.     The love of God and neighbor;     An equal-handed labor;     The richer life, where beauty     Walks hand in hand with duty.     Ring, bells in unreared steeples,     The joy of unborn peoples!     Sound, trumpets far off blown,     Your triumph is my own!     Parcel and part of all,     I keep the festival,     Fore-reach the good to be,     And share the victory.     I feel the earth move sunward,     I join the great march onward,     And take, by faith, while living,     My freehold of thanksgiving.