A Song in Two Voices.FOREVER
AND FOREVER.
First Voice.
The silent horologe of time, which varies never,
Hath swept into the bosom of that sea
Pulsating ’gainst the rock “Eternity,”
The life-blood of an hundred years,
Forever and forever!
But crimson blood upon the Ocean’s wavelets, never
Content beneath the surface smooth to hide,
Will traces leave enrubying the tide,
Till earth in chaos disappears,
Forever and forever!
We gaze upon a restless sea, which quiets never,
And read as on a changing, moving scroll,
The nation’s living, cryptogamic soul,
Which Death’s dark lantern lights and clears,
Forever and forever!
They are our own, these dead we look upon, though never
Have we full guessed the good which passed away;
To know what we were losing day by day,
Would be, methinks, to live in tears,
Forever and forever!
Then listen, brothers, for my failing voice may never,
Be heard again throughout our fatherland;
And e’en the pen drops from my feeble hand,
As my long journey swiftly nears,
Forever and forever!
List while I read to you the graven tale, which never
May be all told by these poor lips of mine,
For coming ages still add line to line,
Till earth no longer heeds nor hears,
Forever and forever!
Second Voice.
Speak, speak, thou dismal guest,
With gloomy thoughts oppressed,
Speak quick and give a rest,
To those who hear thee: