I See a new Earth;
An Earth that is alive – glowing with the care of man’
Man grown wise and free.
2
The influence of different civilizations flows evenly around;
Races and nations and sexes understand each other,
Endue each other with life.
Invisible threads of sympathy cover the earth;
Science and religion, art and industry, are one in truth;
The motive of every act is love.
3
Men accept men, and women accept women, and they accept each other,
At sight;
Because of the ways of them, because of the understanding in their hearts.
4
O work and love and laughter;
Happy, happy crowds;
Lights and colours;
Movements – beauty – joy.
5
The men of every land are at liberty to go where they will’
Trade is free;
The government of the earth is as one;
Peace reigns.
Vast spaces teem with industry;
He surface of the earth is positive and healthy,
Alive in conscious growth.
6
In men’s work is freedom of expression,
In their faces is the calm of all experience,
In their eyes is friendliness and peace.
Their minds are for ever held in truth,
Their hearts are in accord with the purpose of the earth,
They know that they are equal –
Races and peoples – men and women.
They sing as they work,
They follow their desires,
They are in love with life.
7
The rules are the wisest of men and women,
Those who have creative power and a sense of fitness;
So that life moves with all the delight and perfection,
Of which man is capable.
8
The science of the earth is complete;
A wondrous pattern;
A parallelism and a crystallization of all thought, into which every fact of life fits;
A growth that is projected in every dimension;
Rhythmical in movement,
Perfect in its infinite relations;
An indication of all knowledge – unbounded.
The sound of a phrase in the music of the worlds;
So clear as to amaze the mind of man;
So splendid as to dazzle his senses;
So beautiful as to fill his heart with unspeakable peace and joy.
9
And man –
Man and Woman,
The flower of the earth;
Certain and frank – strong and graceful;
With the look of gods – the handclasp of friends;
Having dignity and intuition;
Being clear and content;
Radiating energy and love.
Masters of themselves – laughing and gay’
Changeable – happy – free.
10
The Earth and its natural wealth’
The power that is derived from it,
Its favour and its fruit,
Are the heritage of man.
Inventions and discoveries,
Communications and financial power
Are devoted to his use.
11
The work that men do is vital to the earth;
Done in gladness of heart,
A gift freely given;
A creation from earth’s materials – wrought by the strength and brains of those most fitted;
An ordering of earth’s arrangements – guided by intelligence and humour;
An application of earth’s science – devoted to the welfare of mankind;
A distribution of earth’s bounty –
Made with love.
12
The towns are beautiful;
Centres of communication and exchange of thought and energy,
Of knowledge, meachandise and fun.
Happy towns
Where art and entertainment are poured out, in ever varying forms;
Where truth is spread abroad.
13
Rules are observed in understanding and content;
Only children, laughing, break them.
There is but one law,
The law of love.
Every thought of man is born in love;
And bodies are gifts of love and of passion,
Offered and accepted in gladness,
Conceived in laughter and delight.
14
I hear music –
Clear, subtle, strong;
Ever changing, ever new, ever evolving in form;
Sounding out life’s meaning and life’s rhythm,
Wherein I lose myself.
15
Marriage:
Marriage is love;
Heart love, soul love, body love;
A state which all the world conspires to promote;
As common as the stars.
16
Men and women wear clothes that make glad the beauty of their bodies;
Varying with races, with seasons, and with individuals;
Suitable to the work in hand.
People go often naked in the open air, and in their houses.
It is the same to them as to be clothed.
Their bodies are handsome, sweet smelling, bronzed, glowing with health.
In their faces is contentment,
And their words are laughter and truth.
17
Art is the eager growth of the earth.
Colours, forms and patterns – forged out of earth’s substance;
Creations of love – made in joy and gusto;
Understood of the people,
In agreement with their life,
Spread throughout the world.
18
Dwellings are lovely and agreeable – healthy and open.
Buildings grow into forms that express their meaning;
In keeping with their surroundings,
In relation to their materials,
Suitable to their use;
Strong – simple – fine.
19
There are fetes and carnivals, games and amusements;
What fun there is, and laughter.
20
Life is a dance;
A movement of body and of mind in concert with the rhythm of the earth;
A feast in which all men take part;
The perfect expression of emotion.
Often at the changes of the seasons, in the evening, or at sunrise, or in a storm
People dance.
Dances grown out of the feeling of the hour,
Alloy of life and happiness and love,
Of power and passion;
Keeping pace with the earth,
In tune with all her moods.
21
I pass by furnaces and forges at night;
Lusty men smile at me through the glow and the sparks.
I see teams of builders, and constructors of bridges;
I meet companies of happy raod-makers, and diggers of canals.
Their work is done in gladness,
And in their eyes is the light of the knowledge of use.
Everything that is made is beautiful and honest;
Everything that is done, is done with zest;
And all men go free.
22
They take me into strange places.
Here are companionship, lights, mystery;
The housing together of all the arts;
Colour, acting, songs;
Faithfully remembered tales;
New forms of life, tried out in counterpart,
Before they come to earth.
23
The air is charged with voices, music, pictures;
The wonders of the earth, and of every part of the earth;
All history – past, present, future;
The secrets of every form and act of life.
Imagery in which time is accelerated, interrupted, or reversed;
Motion free from laws;
Relatively draws into the absolute;
Density compressed, or diffused;
Form distorted – dimensions multiplied.
Thus is the sequence of causation unfolded;
The perfection of growth – the rhythm of change;
Visions immense in time and space,
Infinite in movement;
Reflections of the progress of the worlds.
24
The fields and valleys, the forests and the hills,
Give forth abundance;
And all the country-side is kept in beauty.
25
Children are surrounded by a world in being;
The outcome of every age and of every work of man, and of the earth;
By materials and tools, workshops and appliances;
Inventions and models, pictures and maps.
Everything that can be, is learnt by action and experience, from the use and the nature of things
Boys and girls together; they are always busy, always happy, always free.
They build and make gardens, are carpenters and cooks;
They print and read, weave cloth and paint, and do all kinds of work.
Much of their life is passed camping in the open, playing in the sun swimming and making journeys.
They create and control their own organizations;
They act and talk and sing and dance.
Every instruction and information they seek, is accessible to them;
Every experience of the past;
Every practice of the present;
All that they can imagine of the future.
26
And when children leave school, they know the needs of the earth;
They are aware of their own capabilities and limitation, of their desires and dreams;
So that thereafter they are able to do the work they will,
With all their might.
27
The means to all knowledge is within their reach;
Truth is awakened in their hearts;
They put forth creative energy in joy and happiness –
In love with all the world.
28
Life is a triumph and a dance,
A love song and a harmony,
Born into the rhythm of the earth.
It dawns in sleepiness and wonder,
And the morning of it grows in freedom, to the need of doing things.
Romance outruns reality, while imagination strews the way with flowers –
Until youth comes of age.
Then opens into life,
Wisdom, and the happiness of work well done,
The joy of being a creator,
The grace of perfection,
The calm of fulfillment,
And all the pleasures of the earth –
Until the evening.
And in the dust,
Man sets out again upon his road –
In peace.
By Frank Townshend
The second of four chapters from his book, Earth. Published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1929, 1930, 1935, 1938 and 1941. Copyright 1929 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
(The words of the poem that I set to music are in bold)