Message

This is a poem for young people searching for meaning in their lives. It is a poem for people not yet willing to be complacent, passive, or grimly await death. It is for people who are ready to act and to achieve, to strive and fail and learn from their mistakes. Bleak dogma, conservatism, and pessimism have no place here; life is more than "an empty dream." Young people must expend physical and mental energy to accomplish things while they are on this earth, and must seek to leave a legacy to be proud of. The poem represents the youthful, enthusiastic spirit of the United States in an era of profound flux and change.