The poem
One spoke: "Come, let us gaily go With laughter, love and lust, Since in a century or so We'll all be boneyard dust. When unborn shadows hold the screen, (Our betters, I'll allow) 'Twill be as if we'd never been, A hundred years from now.
When we have played life's lively game Right royally we'll rot, And not a soul will care a damn The why or how we fought; To grub for gold or grab for fame Or raise a holy row, It will be all the bloody same A hundred years from now."
Said I: "Look! I have built a tower Upon you lonely hill, Designed to be a daughter's dower, Yet when my heart is still, The stone I set with horny hand And salty sweat of brow, A record of my strength will sand A hundred years from now.
"There's nothing lost and nothing vain In all this world so wide; The ocean hoards each drop of rain To swell its sweeping tide; The desert seeks each grain of sand It's empire to endow, And we a bright brave world have planned A hundred years from now.
And all we are and all we do Will bring that world to be; Our strain and pain let us not rue, Though other eyes shall see; For other hearts will bravely beat And lips will sing of how We strove to make life sane and sweet A hundred years from now.