George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.
The Future is better than the PastEliza Thayer Clapp (18111888)
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Seek we Eden’s golden trees;
In the future, folded deep,
Are its mystic harmonies.
Give the past unto the wind;
All before us is the day,
Night and darkness are behind.
Love and flowers and coolest sea,
Is not ancient story told,
But a glowing prophecy.
In the passions tame and kind,
Innocence from selfish care,
The real Eden we shall find.
To the patient and the striving,
To the quiet heart at home,
Thinking wise and faithful living.
From the heart and from the life;
When the sensuous is laid low,
Through the spirit’s holy strife;
True and beautiful and sound;
Then all earth is sanctified,
Up springs Paradise around.
Guardian watch from seraph-eyes;
Angels on the slanting rays,
Voices from the opening skies,
All disturbing force shall flee;
Stir nor toil nor hope shall mar
Its immortal unity.