C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

William Carman Roberts (1874–1941)

THIS rolling sea of stars

Is dust before thy breath,

Whose pleasure makes or mars

The halls of life and death.

Thy least desire is heard

Beyond the vasts of space,

And being’s core is stirred

At turning of thy face.

The cycles of earth’s years

Are phases in thy dream,

Unblurred by drift of tears,

Untouched of shade and gleam.

Yet of thy will we are

And children of thy word,

With every sun and star,

With every flower and bird.

Then grant we may not fail

From out thy vision vast,

When life’s strong warders quail

Before death’s icy blast;

But may we still aspire

To things unknown, unguessed,

More near the heart’s desire

Than this poor body’s quest.