So goes one prophecy
Fitting in its grandeur,
And true, for all of me --
A various multitude
Of the bacteria
Will rule the biosphere,
Their center everywhere,
Humble inheritors
Guarding the true and good;
And all we've understood
Of all that has most mattered,
And, understood, have spoken
In music, paint, words, stone,
In number, and the rest
Till it all stood complete
As nearly as could be --
And perishable, though
After each overthrow
Learned all over again
And more still -- all this broken
In ultimate defeat,
The litter of it scattered
On earth that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle, while
She paces even, and bears
Thee soft with the smooth air
Along (that's as she crossed
Our gaze in Paradise Lost)....