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Poems About the Future

Table of Contents

  1. This was in the white of the year by Emily Dickinson
  2. Old and New by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
  3. To-Day by Nixon Waterman
  4. Foreboding by Ellen P. Allerton
  5. We Face the Future by Georgia Douglas Johnson
  6. Thou Knowest by John Hill Luther
  7. The Veil by E. F. Hayward
  8. The Future Oklahoma by Frank M. Colville


Build on resolve, and not upon regret,
The structure of thy future.

– Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Resolve

  1. This was in the white of the year

    by Emily Dickinson

    This was in the white of the year,
    That was in the green,
    Drifts were as difficult then to think
    As daisies now to be seen.

    Looking back is best that is left,
    Or if it be before,
    Retrospection is prospect's half,
    Sometimes almost more.

  2. Old and New

    by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

    Long have the poets vaunted, in their lays,
    Old times, old loves, old friendship, and old wine.
    Why should the old monopolize all praise?
    Then let the new claim mine.

    Give me strong new friends, when the old prove weak,
    Or fail me in my darkest hour of need;
    Why perish with the ship that springs a leak,
    Or lean upon a reed?

    Give me new love, warm, palpitating, sweet,
    When all the grace and beauty leave the old;
    When like a rose it withers at my feet,
    Or like a hearth grows cold.

    Give me new times, bright with a prosperous cheer,
    In place of old, tear-blotted, burdened days;
    I hold a sunlit present far more dear,
    And worthy of my praise.

    When the old deeds are threadbare, and worn through,
    And all too narrow for the broadening soul,
    Give me the fine, firm texture of the new,
    Fair, beautiful and whole!

  3. To-Day

    by Nixon Waterman

    We shall do so much in the years to come
    But what have we done to-day?
    We shall give our gold in a princely sum,
    But what did we give to-day?
    We shall lift the heart and dry the tear,
    We shall plant a hope in the place of fear,
    We shall speak with words of love and cheer,
    But what have we done to-day?

    We shall be so kind in the after while,
    But what have we been to-day?
    We shall bring to each lonely life a smile,
    But what have we brought to-day?
    We shall give to truth a grander birth.
    And to steadfast faith a deeper worth,
    We shall feed the hungering souls of earth,
    But whom have we fed to-day?

  4. Foreboding

    by Ellen P. Allerton

    I will not look for storms when skies are glowing,
    With hues of summer sunsets painted o'er;
    When all my tides of life are softly flowing,
    I will not listen for the breaker's roar.

    I will not search the future for its sorrows,
    Nor peer ahead for lions in the way,
    I will not weep o'er possible to-morrows—
    Sufficient is the evil of to-day.

  5. We Face the Future

    by Georgia Douglas Johnson

    The hour is big with sooth and sign, with errant men at war,
    While blood of alien, friend, and foe imbues the land afar,
    And we, with sable faces pent, move with the vanguard line,
    Shod with a faith that Springtime keeps, and all the stars opine.

  6. The Veil

    by E. F. Hayward

    If we could see ahead a little way,
    And know what is in store for us tomorrow,
    Just peep behind the curtains of today,
    And get a glimpse of future joy or sorrow,
    Would we be able to forestall the bad,
    And in its stead have only the pure and good?
    Or would that knowledge only make us sad,
    Now I wonder, as I ponder, if it would?
    Perhaps 'tis better that we cannot see
    Beyond the veil, which hides tomorrow's light,
    And living thus, in doubt, perhaps we'll be
    Much happier, with the things which are in sight.

  7. The Future Oklahoma

    by Frank M. Colville

    Mine eyes are looking forward,
    And I see a vision blest,
    For the future Oklahoma,
    The Queen of the Southwest.

    The last one called and numbered,
    In the sisterhood of states,
    But first in pluck and progress—
    The leader of her mates.

    I see her fertile prairies,
    Where earth's golden wealth we reap;
    I see her mines and factories
    And her orchards fruited deep.

    I see her gas and oil fields
    Where wealth is daily made;
    I see her wondrous cities
    With their hum of life and trade.

    I see her homes and hearth-stones,
    Where health and wealth abide;
    I see her trackless forests,
    Where the timid deer still hide.

    I see her lofty hilltops;
    I see her valleys green,
    And mine eyes are filled with rapture
    At the splendor of the scene.

    I see her verdant landscape,
    'Neath heaven's azure dome,
    And I am proud that Oklahoma
    Is the place that I call home.

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