Mankind’s great servant I,
A servant long unknown
And still unseen, save in the sky
When I illume its zone.
I sweep around the stars,
Ascend through spaces dim.
I light my lamps where night unbars
Above the mountains grim.
But still my chief delight
Is not to rock the deep,
And flash my fires across the night
Where angry tempests sweep.
It is to drive the keel,
Bear words from place to place,
To swing the beam, and turn the wheel,
And serve the human race.
[Illustration of a stormy night. Foreground fills bottom third of the
frame with wind-swept grass. Pine tree fills the frame and is
illuminated by a single lightning bolt. Behind the tree whiteness fills
the middle third of the frame; its rounded top together with its
juxtaposition with the rounded foreground gives it a crescent shape
(the moon?). A few stars are visible.]