U.S.A

A Poem by : Rosemary & Stephen Vincent Benet
 Written in 1933

So we march into present

and it's always rather pleasant

to speculate on what the years ahead of us will see,

for our words and thoughts and attitudes,

all our novelties and platitudes,

Will be rather ancient history in 2033.

Will they find us wise - or silly?

Looking backwards, willy-nilly,

At our queer old-fashioned costumes and our quaint old-fashioned ways?

When our doings face the ages,

printed down on textbook pages,

Will they cry, "This savage era" ? Will they sigh, "Those were the days!" ?

I don't know- you may be wiser.

Time's a curious capsizer

of a lot of reputations that seemed certain to endure,

while he'll sometimes make his heroes 

out of people, once thought zeroes,

for the most well-grounded reasons, by the solemnly cocksure.

So, instead of prophesying

(Which is fun, but rather trying)

Who they'll pick to be our great ones when the books are on the shelves,

Here's the marching panorama

of our past and present drama

- and we shan't know all the answers till we're history, ourselves.