Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/93
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LIFE, DEATH, AND ETERNITY.
75
River, river, brimming river,
Broad and deep, and still as Time;
Seeming still—yet still in motion,
Tending onward to the ocean,
Just like mortal prime.
Broad and deep, and still as Time;
Seeming still—yet still in motion,
Tending onward to the ocean,
Just like mortal prime.
River, river, rapid river!
Swifter now you slip away;
Swift and silent as an arrow;
Through a channel dark and narrow,
Like life's closing day.
Swifter now you slip away;
Swift and silent as an arrow;
Through a channel dark and narrow,
Like life's closing day.
River, river, headlong river,
Down you dash into the sea;
Sea that line hath never sounded,
Sea that voyage hath never rounded,
Like eternity.
Down you dash into the sea;
Sea that line hath never sounded,
Sea that voyage hath never rounded,
Like eternity.
Life, Death, and Eternity.
A shadow moving by one's side,
That would a substance seem—
That is, yet is not,—though descried,—
Like skies beneath the stream;
A tree that's ever in the bloom,
Whose fruit is ever ripe;
A wish for joys that never come,
Such are the hopes of life.
That would a substance seem—
That is, yet is not,—though descried,—
Like skies beneath the stream;
A tree that's ever in the bloom,
Whose fruit is ever ripe;
A wish for joys that never come,
Such are the hopes of life.
A dark, inevitable night,
A blank that will remain;
A waiting for the morning light,
When waiting is in vain;
A gulf where pathway never led
To show the depth beneath;
A thing we know not, yet we dread:
That dreaded thing is death.
A blank that will remain;
A waiting for the morning light,
When waiting is in vain;
A gulf where pathway never led
To show the depth beneath;
A thing we know not, yet we dread:
That dreaded thing is death.
The vaulted void of purple sky
That everywhere extends,
That stretches from the dazzled eye,
In space that never ends;
A morning whose uprisen sun
No setting e'er shall see;
A day that comes without a noon:
Such is eternity.
That everywhere extends,
That stretches from the dazzled eye,
In space that never ends;
A morning whose uprisen sun
No setting e'er shall see;
A day that comes without a noon:
Such is eternity.