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Literary
May 7, 1835
Martinsburg Gazette
Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia
What is this article about?
A visionary poem predicting utopian changes in politics, morals, religion, trade, fashion, laws, prisons, and professions over the next century, culminating in the end of vice and folly, with a reflective note on the reader's fate.
Merged-components note: Image spatially overlaps with the poem, likely an accompanying illustration.
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OCR Quality
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Full Text
POETRY
A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE.
A hundred years hence what a change will be made
In politics and morals,
Religion and trade:
In statesmen who wrangle
Or fight on the stage;
How things will be altered
A hundred years hence.
The heads of the ladies,
Such changes may find
We do not speak now
Of mutation of mind—
From three bushel bonnets
To snug little hats,
The scoops, Navarinos,
The Gypsies and daus,
With furs and with ribbons,
With feathers and flowers—
Some fashioned by artists,
Some plucked from the bowers,
But heads will be changed too,
In science, and sense.
Before we have numbered
A hundred years hence.
Our laws will be then,
Uncompulsory rules,
Our prisons be changed
Into rational schools;
The pleasures of vice
Are a silly pretence,
And people will know it
A hundred years hence.
All vice will be zero
When the people awake
To rise out of folly—
'Tis all a mistake!
The lawyers and doctors,
And ministers too,
Will have, I'm thinking,
But little to do.
Their careful attention
They then may bestow
On raising potatoes
Or turnips you know,
Or any employment
They choose to commence;
For apples will be many
A hundred years hence.
And you and I—reader,
Where shall we be found
Can any one tell,
When that time shall come round;
In transports of pleasure,
Or sorrow intense?
We'll know more about it
A hundred years hence.
A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE.
A hundred years hence what a change will be made
In politics and morals,
Religion and trade:
In statesmen who wrangle
Or fight on the stage;
How things will be altered
A hundred years hence.
The heads of the ladies,
Such changes may find
We do not speak now
Of mutation of mind—
From three bushel bonnets
To snug little hats,
The scoops, Navarinos,
The Gypsies and daus,
With furs and with ribbons,
With feathers and flowers—
Some fashioned by artists,
Some plucked from the bowers,
But heads will be changed too,
In science, and sense.
Before we have numbered
A hundred years hence.
Our laws will be then,
Uncompulsory rules,
Our prisons be changed
Into rational schools;
The pleasures of vice
Are a silly pretence,
And people will know it
A hundred years hence.
All vice will be zero
When the people awake
To rise out of folly—
'Tis all a mistake!
The lawyers and doctors,
And ministers too,
Will have, I'm thinking,
But little to do.
Their careful attention
They then may bestow
On raising potatoes
Or turnips you know,
Or any employment
They choose to commence;
For apples will be many
A hundred years hence.
And you and I—reader,
Where shall we be found
Can any one tell,
When that time shall come round;
In transports of pleasure,
Or sorrow intense?
We'll know more about it
A hundred years hence.
What sub-type of article is it?
Poem
Vision Or Dream
What themes does it cover?
Moral Virtue
Political
Social Manners
What keywords are associated?
Future Vision
Social Change
Moral Reform
Utopian Prophecy
Vice Eradication
Literary Details
Title
A Hundred Years Hence.
Key Lines
A Hundred Years Hence What A Change Will Be Made
In Politics And Morals,
Religion And Trade:
All Vice Will Be Zero
When The People Awake
To Rise Out Of Folly—
'Tis All A Mistake!
We'll Know More About It
A Hundred Years Hence.