Reply to Rudyard Kipling’s “He travels the fastest who travels alone.”
Who travels alone with his eyes on the heights, Though he laughs in the day time oft weeps in the nights;
For courage goes down at the set of the sun, When the toil of the journey is all borne by one.
He speeds but to grief though full gaily he ride Who travels alone without love at his side.
Who travels alone without lover or friend But hurries from nothing, to naught at the end.
Though great be his winnings and high be his goal, He is bankrupt in wisdom and beggared in soul.
Life’s one gift of value to him is denied Who travels alone without love at his side.
It is easy enough in this world to make haste If one live for that purpose—but think of the waste;
For life is a poem to leisurely read, And the joy of the journey lies not in its speed.
Oh! vain his achievement and petty his pride Who travels alone without love at his side.
The earth is yours and mine, Our God’s bequest. That testament divine Who dare contest?
Usurpers of the earth, We claim our share. We are of royal birth. Beware! beware!
Unloose the hand of greed From God’s fair land, We claim but what we need— That, we demand.
I leave with God to-morrow’s where and how, And do concern myself but with the Now, That little word, though half the future’s length, Well used, holds twice its meaning and its strength.
Like one blindfolded groping out his way, I will not try to touch beyond to-day. Since all the future is concealed from sight I need but strive to make the next step right.
That done, the next, and so on, till I find Perchance some day I am no longer blind, And looking up, behold a radiant Friend Who says, “Rest, now, for you have reached the end.”
With every rising of the sun Think of your life as just begun.
The past has shrived and buried deep All yesterdays—there let them sleep,
Nor seek to summon back one ghost Of that innumerable host.
Concern yourself with but to-day; Woo it and teach it to obey
Your wish and will. Since time began To-day has been the friend of man.
But in his blindness and his sorrow He looks to yesterday and to-morrow.
You and to-day! a soul sublime And the great pregnant hour of time.
With God between to bind the train, Go forth, I say—attain—attain.