Page images
PDF
EPUB

"I will go forward, sayest thou,

I shall not fail to find her now.

Look up, the fold is on her brow.

"If straight thy track, or if oblique,

Thou know'st not.

Shadows thou dost strike,

Embracing cloud, Ixion-like;

"And owning but a little more

Than beasts, abidest lame and poor,
Calling thyself a little lower

"Than angels.

Cease to wail and brawl!

Why inch by inch to darkness crawl?

There is one remedy for all.

"O dull, one-sided voice," said I, "Wilt thou make everything a lie,

To flatter me that I may die?

[blocks in formation]

"I know that age to age succeeds,

Blowing a noise of tongues and deeds, A dust of systems and of creeds.

"I cannot hide that some have striven, Achieving calm, to whom was given

The joy that mixes man with Heaven.

"Who rowing hard against the stream, Saw distant gates of Eden gleam, And did not dream it was a dream;

"But heard, by secret transport led,

Ev'n in the charnels of the dead,

The murmur of the fountain-head

"Which did accomplish their desire, Bore and forbore, and did not tire,

Like Stephen, an unquenched fire

"He heeded not reviling tones,

Nor sold his heart to idle moans,

Tho' cursed and scorn'd, and bruised with stones :

"But looking upward, full of grace,

He pray'd, and from a happy place
God's glory smote him on the face."

The sullen answer slid betwixt :
"Not that the grounds of hope were fix'd,

The elements were kindlier mix'd."

I said, "I toil beneath the curse,
But, knowing not the universe,

I fear to slide from bad to worse.

"And that, in seeking to undo One riddle, and to find the true I knit a hundred others new:

"Or that this anguish fleeting hence, Unmanacled from bonds of sense,

Be fix'd and froz'n to permanence:

"For I go, weak from suffering here;

Naked I go,

and void of cheer:

What is it that I may not fear?"

"Consider well," the voice replied,

"His face, that two hours since hath died; Wilt thou find passion, pain or pride?

"Will he obey when one commands? Or answer should one press his hands? He answers not, nor understands.

"His palms are folded on his breast: There is no other thing express'd

But long disquiet merged in rest.

"His lips are very mild and meek:

Though one should smite him on the cheek, And on the mouth, he will not speak.

"His little daughter, whose sweet face He kiss'd, taking his last embrace, Becomes dishonour to her race

"His sons grow up that bear his name, Some grow to honour, some to shame, But he is chill to praise or blame.

[ocr errors]

"He will not hear the north-wind rave,

Nor, moaning, household shelter crave

From winter rains that beat his grave.

66

High up

the vapours fold and swim: About him broods the twilight dim:

The place he knew forgetteth him."

« PreviousContinue »