Excerpt from Joaquin Miller's Poems, Vol. 1 of 6: An Introduction, Etc ET us sound a bugle rally for the lovers of song. Never was there so much poetry, beauty, glory, good, in all the world as at this hour. Earth only asks expression. Let us cry aloud in the wilderness, the king is coming, and prepare the way. The darkest hour is always just before day. I conjure you, my lovers, do not despair, but exult in this pastoral and progressive age of action. There is more true poetry in the rush of a single railroad train across the continent than in all that gory story of burning Troy. The mighty engine, the heroic engineer, the clean, Christian, cultured argonauts are waiting their poet, that is all. Every invention, whether for commerce or agri culture, is a poem waiting its prophet; a song as sweet and sacred as a psalm of David. Every engine that uplifts man or lightens man's work is even as a Song of Solomon. I declare to you that when we are all forgotten this practical age, which so many are ready to deride, will shine forth as the fairest, truest, best in all history, and song, and story will celebrate those despised days of ours as more chivalrous than all the Crusaders; more liberty-loving, clean, Christian, than Cromwell and Milton ever dreamed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.