Self-confident Youth

THE earth is mine and its myriad flowers,And the stars are mine: I shall count them all;As I hasten on with expanding powers,No cloud-capped peak shall my strength appal.

I will measure my might 'gainst the might of Ocean,In ships of my building, its wastes will dare;I will learn of the swallow its swift-winged motion,And ride as it rides, through the fields of Air! . . .

I marvel my fathers have been contentedTo live and to labor in ways time-worn:That to Fate's denials they e'er consented,Solaced by trifles my soul would scorn!

For the tired old world I will write a storyThat none of her children has told before:A tale of adventure and love, whose gloryShall glow in her annals forevermore.

To the depths, to the heights I am called to inherit,I will climb, will descend, without fear of fall,In the perilous joy of a dauntless spiritThat nothing shall have—if it have not All!