One Song, America, Before I Go

   ONE song, America, before I go,
   I'd sing, o'er all the rest, with trumpet sound,
   For thee--the Future.

   I'd sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality;
   I'd fashion thy Ensemble, including Body and Soul;
   I'd show, away ahead, thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish'd.

   (The paths to the House I seek to make,
   But leave to those to come, the House itself.)

   Belief I sing--and Preparation;
   As Life and Nature are not great with reference to the Present
         only,                                                        10
   But greater still from what is yet to come,
   Out of that formula for Thee I sing.