Faith

By Louis Untermeyer 1885–1977 Louis Untermeyer

What are we bound for? What’s the yield

Of all this energy and waste?

Why do we spend ourselves and build

With such an empty haste?

Wherefore the bravery we boast?

How can we spend one laughing breath

When at the end all things are lost

In ignorance and death? . . .

The stars have found a blazing course

In a vast curve that cuts through space;

Enough for us to feel that force

Swinging us through the days.

Enough that we have strength to sing

And fight and somehow scorn the grave;

That Life’s too bold and bright a thing

To question or to save.

Source: These Times (1917)

Biography

Louis Untermeyer was the author, editor or compiler, and translator of more than one hundred books for readers of all ages. He will be best remembered as the prolific anthologist whose collections have introduced students to contemporary American poetry since 1919. The son of an established New York jeweler, Untermeyer's interest in poetry led to friendships with poets from three generations, including many of the century's . . .

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