Edwin Arlington Robinson — Cassandra

I heard one who said: "Verily,         What word have I for children here? Your Dollar is your only Word,         The wrath of it your only fear. "You build it altars tall enough         To make you see, but you are blind; You cannot leave it long enough         To look before you or behind. "When Reason beckons you to pause,         You laugh and say that you know best; But what it is you know, you keep         As dark as ingots in a chest. "You laugh and answer, 'We are young;         O leave us now, and let us grow.'— Not asking how much more of this        &nbsp Will Time endure or Fate bestow. "Because a few complacent years        &nbsp Have made your peril of your pride, Think you that you are to go on         Forever pampered and untried? "What lost eclipse of history,         What bivouac of the marching stars, Has given the sign for you to see        &nbsp Millenniums and last great wars? "What unrecorded overthrow         Of all the world has ever known, Or ever been, has made itself         So plain to you, and you alone? "Your Dollar, Dove and Eagle make         A Trinity that even you Rate higher than you rate yourselves;         It pays, it flatters, and it's new. "And though your very flesh and blood         Be what your Eagle eats and drinks, You'll praise him for the best of birds,         Not knowing what the Eagle thinks. "The power is yours, but not the sight;         You see not upon what you tread; You have the ages for your guide,         But not the wisdom to be led. "Think you to tread forever down         The merciless old verities? And are you never to have eyes         To see the world for what it is? "Are you to pay for what you have         With all you are?"—No other word We caught, but with a laughing crowd         Moved on. None heeded, and few heard.