Life
Out of the infinite sea of eternity To climb, and for an instant stand Upon an island speck of time. From the impassible peace of the darkness To wake, and blink at the garish light Through one short hour of fretfulness.
James Weldon Johnson
Out of the infinite sea of eternity To climb, and for an instant stand Upon an island speck of time. From the impassible peace of the darkness To wake, and blink at the garish light Through one short hour of fretfulness.
James Weldon Johnson presents life as a tiny, almost fragile interruption in something much larger and calmer. A person rises out of an “infinite sea of eternity” only to stand for an instant on an “island speck of time.” That image makes a human lifespan feel very small—just a speck against an…
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