C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
A Childs Future
By Algernon Charles Swinburne (18371909)
W
Fame upon land will you look for, or glory by sea?
Gallant your life will be always, and all of it free.
Eastward, and sounds from the springs of the sunrise are heard;
Free—and we know not another as infinite word.
Hate may arise up against us, or hope may confound;
Love may forsake us: yet may not the spirit be bound.
Still may the soul be, and each to her strength as a toy;
Free in the glance of the man as the smile of the boy.
Life, and without her is nothing that verily lives:
Death cannot slay her; she laughs upon death, and forgives.
Glitters the blithe little face of you, round as a star;
Liberty bless you and keep you to be as you are.
Worthy the name of their child and the sight of their sea:
Fear not at all; for a slave, if he fears not, is free.