These things shall be! a loftier race
These things shall be! a loftier race. John Addington Symonds* (1840-1893).
First published in Symonds’s New and Old (1880), with the title ‘A Vista’. It was a poem of 15 stanzas, with three stanzas preceding ‘These things shall be’:
Sad heart, what will the future bring
To happier men when we are gone?
What golden days shall dawn for them
Transcending all we gaze upon?
Will our long strife be laid to rest?
The warfare of our blind desires
Be merged in a perpetual peace,
And love illume but harmless fires?
Shall faith released from forms that chain
And freeze the spirit while we pray,
Expect with calm and ardent eyes
The morning of death’s brighter day?
Selected...
If you have a valid subscription to Dictionary of Hymnology, please log inlog in to view this content. If you require a subscription, please click here.
MLA style (see MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd Ed.)
. "These things shall be! a loftier race."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Web. 17 May. 2026.<
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/t/these-things-shall-be!-a-loftier-race>.
Chicago style (see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed.)
. "These things shall be! a loftier race."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed May 17, 2026,
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/t/these-things-shall-be!-a-loftier-race.