A Terror and a Glory! Shocked with light,
His boundless being glares aghast;
Then slowly settles down the wonted night,
All desolate and vast.
Daisies are white upon the churchyard sod,
Sweet tears, the clouds lean down and give.
This world is very lovely. O my God,
I thank Thee that I live!
Ringed with his flaming guards of many kinds,
The proud Sun stoops his golden head,
Grey Eve sobs crazed with grief; to her the winds
Shriek out, "The Day is dead."
I gave this beggar Day no alms, this Night
Has seen nor work accomplished, planned,
Yet this poor Day shall soon in memory's light
A summer rainbow stand!
There is no evil in this present strife;
From th' shivering Seal's low moans,
Up through the shining tiers and ranks of life,
To stars upon their thrones,
The seeming ills are Loves in dim disguise;
Dark moral knots, that pose the seer,
If we are lovers, in our wider eyes
Shall hang, like dew-drops, clear.
Ye are my menials, ye thick-crowding years!
Ha! yet with a triumphant shout
My spirit shall take captive all the spheres,
And wring their riches out.
God! what a glorious future gleams on me;
With nobler senses, nobler peers,
I'll wing me through Creation like a bee,
And taste the gleaming spheres!
While some are trembling o'er the poison-cup,
While some grow lean with care, some weep,
In this luxurious faith I'll wrap me up,
As in a robe, and sleep.
Oh, 'tis a sleeping Poet! and his verse
Sings like the syren-isles. An opulent Soul
Dropt in my path like a great cup of gold,
All rich and rough with stories of the gods!
Methinks all poets should be gentle, fair,
And ever young, and ever beautiful:
I'd have all Poets to be like to this,—
Gold-haired and rosy-lipped, to sing of Love.
Love! Love! Old song that Poet ever chanteth,
Of which the listening world is never weary.
Soul is a moon, Love is its loveliest phase.
Alas! to me this Love will never come
Till summer days shall visit dark December.
Woe's me! 'tis very sad, but 'tis my doom
To hide a ghastly grief within my heart,
And then to coin my lying cheek to smiles,
Sure, smiles become a victim garlanded!
Hist! he awakes——