New Prometheus

Forsaking ancient fears in modern spite,

The new cartographers of mankind's soul

Were steeped in drowsing minds without the toll

Of dispossessing reason's restless light.

Enlightening the submind’s endless night,

But dimly, for the darkness has its role,

They found the stuff unthought that make thoughts whole.

Baptised in Lethe to awake new sight,

The pioneers returned, armed with the way

Our hordes now use to light the soul for free,

Subduing all frontiers until it seems

Perpetual night became perpetual day,

Dispelling what we brought the light to see:

The wakened soul forgot the stuff of dreams.

Hanniel Lim is a final-year student of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the National University of Singapore. He believes in the pursuit of beauty as the search for God.