Isadora Duncan

(The Modern Age)

O Priestess of an unperish'd fire that glows

To ecstasy ere our mind can understand!

O Life-Spring from a permanent stream that flows

Even 'neath our famish'd land!

We bless you for the mighty Thought you bring,

And for the dumb despairs your motions thrill

To such glad life as in our dreams may sing,

And which is singing still.

We bless you for the token to us all

You flash'd on our raised vision, through the dust

Of staggering hours. O Lode-Star beautiful

In skies that are not lost!

O'er road that is not lost. O'er April lands

Where rains dance through the tide of human flowers,

And sunrise, and the work of human hands

Fulfil unspeakable hours!

Oh not a dream! Though when you went away

Such silence fell as long we had not known,

Who had forgotten Silence in the fray-

Oh out silence grown,

And from your dancing, from the awakening reed

Of unheard music, from beckoning hand

Of your sweet summons, rise the desires that lead

Into your land, our land!

John Collier