The World of One

Life and I were alone together,
The world and I were one.
Earth and sea were mine to tether,
Mine was the golden sun.

Life ran clear as a limpid river,
The seas were charted seas;
God was a kind and generous giver.
Giver of gifts to please.

I dreamed and slept in shadow and sun,
I lipped the goblet's brim;
And I was one in a world of one,
That span to my will and whim.

Earth was granite beneath my heel,
Above me a smiling sky;
And life was certain as tempered steel,
For me to profit thereby.

I climbed the edge of the sky-flung peak.
Brazened to earth and sun;
King of all that I could seek,
Lord of the world of one.

But out of this has come a day
When I hear a bugle call;
And forth I go from a world of one,
To serve for a world of all.