Crosses himself, and sighs, alas! With sorrowful voice to all who pass, "Forever never! Never forever! By day its voice is low and light; Aud seems to say, at each chamber-door, "Forever never! Through days of sorrow and of mirth, Through days of death and days of birth, Through every swift vicissitude Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood, And as if, like God, it all things saw, It calmly repeats those words of awe, "Forever never! Never forever!" In that mansion used to be His great fires up the chimney roared; Never forever!" There groups of merry children played, Even as a miser counts his gold, Never forever!" From that chamber, clothed in white, The dead lay in his shroud of snow; And in the hush that followed the prayer, Was heard the old clock on the stair, All are scattered now and fled, Some are married, some are dead; And when I ask, with throbs of pain, "Ah! when shall they all meet again? As in the days long since gone by, The ancient timepiece makes reply, "Forever -- never! Never - forever!" Never here, forever there, Where all parting, pain, and care, Sayeth this incessantly, "Forever-never! Never forever!" |