European Testament

Now European
Gazes past Ocean
To the shining
Westland of promising,
Vivid with the passion
Of his own tradition
That lives and takes the shape
Of another hope.
This he sees, and the nature
Of his own future
Able to be realized,
Nearly realized,
Threatened by all the doom
That now he sees come.
He kisses his hand
To the Western Land,
Crying, ‘You of that Coast,
If all of us are lost,
Take you what our furies
Spare of the centuries.
You alone, with us lost,
Shall receive the past.
If we go, you must stay
Till a better day.
All that we had worth,
If it is worth,
You must keep, use, and alter:
The times falter;
We’ll watch death easier,
If you inherit there.’