TOMORROW
By:
January 5, 2026
A series dedicated to poems, published c. 1900–1935, the Radium Age sf-adjacent themes of which include: dystopia and utopia, far-out mathematics and the fourth dimension, Afro-futurism, catastrophe, future war, new technologies, scientific breakthrough, dehumanization, cosmic awe, disenchantment and unseen forces, unknowable aliens and singularity. Research and selection by Joshua Glenn; thematic index here.
(“Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand”)
Tomorrow! magic word of promise rare,
What witchery inheres in thy sweet name,
Inspiring wild ambition, naught can tame,
To conquer failure — here or otherwhere;
The rosy rapture thou dost ever bear
Upon thy brow, is but the beacon-fame —
The luminous lodestone, luring on to fame
And high endeavor! Simple friend, beware
The fool who says, “Tomorrow — never
comes”;
For opportunities like bursting bombs
Shall blast the walls that limit us Today.
And all, who wish within its scope to stay.
Time has no end save in eternity
Of which Tomorrow is the prophecy.
— Found in her 1922 collection The Widening Light.
“Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands” refers to Psalm 68:31, a biblical verse that has been interpreted as a prophecy of salvation, freedom, and unity for people of African descent, historically used in discussions about African American emancipation and civil rights, and by Pan-African leaders to call for unity and self-determination.
RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF POETRY: Stephen Spender’s THE PYLONS | George Sterling’s THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS | Archibald MacLeish’s EINSTEIN | Thomas Thornely’s THE ATOM | C.S. Lewis’s DYMER | Stephen Vincent Benét’s METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE | Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE | Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” | Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… | Robert Graves’s WELSH INCIDENT | Nancy Cunard’s ZEPPELINS | D.H. Lawrence’s WELLSIAN FUTURES | & many more.