  Swung in the Purpose of the upper sphere, We sweep on to the century anear. But something makes the heart of man forebode: There is a new Sphinx watching by the road! Its name is Labor, and the world must hear— Must hear and answer its dread Question—yea, Or perish as the tribes of yesterday. Thunder and Earthquake crouch beyond the gate; But fear not: man is greater than his fate. For one will come with Answer—with a word Wherein the whole world’s gladness shall be heard; One who will feel the grief in every breast, The heart-cry of humanity for rest. So we await the Leader to appear, Lover of men, thinker and doer and seer, The hero who will fill the labor throne And build the Comrade Kingdom, stone by stone; Breaking through ancient vision, gleam by gleam— Something that Song alone can faintly feel, And only Song’s wild rapture can reveal. Thrilled by the Cosmic Oneness he will rise, Youth in his heart and morning in his eyes; While glory fallen from the far-off goal Will send mysterious splendor on his soul. Him shall all toilers know to be their friend; Him shall they follow faithful to the end. Though every leaf were a tongue to cry, “Thou must!” He will not say the unjust thing is just. Not all the fiends that curse in the eclipse Shall shake his heart or hush his lyric lips. His cry for justice, it will stir the stones From Hell’s black granite to the seraph thrones! The hushed Fates lean expectant from their seat. He will be calm and reverent and strong, And, carrying in his words the fire of song, Will send a hope upon these weary men, A hope to make the heart grow young again, A cry to comrades scattered and afar: Be constellated, star by circling star; Give to all mortals justice and forgive: License must die that liberty may live. Let Love shine through the fabric of the State— Love deathless, Love whose other name is Fate. Fear not: we cannot fail— The Vision will prevail. Truth is the Oath of God, and, sure and fast, Through Death and Hell holds onward to the last.
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