Posted by Hugh Nations Signing Agents of Austin on 9/11/06 1:19pm
Msg #145174
An inspiration revisited
One of my favorite poets has always been Alfred Lord Tennyson. He is out of fashion today and regarded as somewhat quaint, because his views of honor and morality don't coincide with what is prevalent today.
I am reminded of Tennyson today, and one of my favorite quotes, from "Locksley Hall":
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies, grappling in the central blue;
Far along the worldwide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder storm;
Till the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.
That was written a century and a half ago, long before the Wright brothers. Let us hope he was as prescient about our ultimate fate as he was about flight.
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