NEITHER OUT FAR NOR IN DEEP
Robert Frost
The people along the sand
All turn and look one way.
They turn their back on the land.
They look at the sea all day.
As long aw it takes to pass
A ship keeps raising its hull;
The wetter ground like glass
Reflects a standing gull.
The land may vary more;
But wherever the truth may be-
The water comes ashore,
And the people look at the sea.
They cannot look out far.
They cannot look in deep.
But when was that ever a bar
To any watch they keep?
[Note: I didn't know what name to choose to stand for the first of what Amin has called the three "Great Revolutions," those that changed conceptions of human possibility. Probably some compoundname would be necessary: Rousseau/Mirabeau/Danton/Robespeierre, but that would make a clumsy subject line.]