| A FIERCE unrest seethes at the core | |
| Of all existing things: | |
| It was the eager wish to soar | |
| That gave the gods their wings. | |
| |
| From what flat wastes of cosmic slime, | 5 |
| And stung by what quick fire, | |
| Sunward the restless races climb!— | |
| Men risen out of mire! | |
| |
| There throbs through all the worlds that are | |
| This heart-beat hot and strong, | 10 |
| And shaken systems, star by star, | |
| Awake and glow in song. | |
| |
| But for the urge of this unrest | |
| These joyous spheres are mute; | |
| But for the rebel in his breast | 15 |
| Had man remained a brute. | |
| |
| When baffled lips demanded speech, | |
| Speech trembled into birth— | |
| (One day the lyric word shall reach | |
| From earth to laughing earth.)— | 20 |
| |
| When man's dim eyes demanded light, | |
| The light he sought was born— | |
| His wish, a Titan, scaled the height | |
| And flung him back the morn! | |
| |
| From deed to dream, from dream to deed, | 25 |
| From daring hope to hope, | |
| The restless wish, the instant need, | |
| Still lashed him up the slope! | |
. . . . . .
I sing no governed firmament, | |
| Cold, ordered, regular— | 30 |
| I sing the stinging discontent | |
| That leaps from star to star! | |
