“The day I lived in was not mine:
Man gets no second day.
In dreams I saw the future shine,
But ah! I could not stay!
“Action I had not, followers, fame.
I passed obscure, alone.
The after-world forgets my name,
Nor do I wish it known.
“Composed to bear, I lived and died,
And knew my life was vain.
With fate I murmur not, nor chide.
At Sèvres by the Seine
“(If Paris that brief flight allow)
My humble tomb explore!
It bears: Eternity, be thou
My refuge! and no more.
“But thou, whom fellowship of mood
Did make from haunts of strife
Come to my mountain solitude,
And learn my frustrate life;
“O thou, who, ere thy flying span
Was past of cheerful youth,
Didst find the solitary man,
And love his cheerless truth,—
“Despair not thou as I despaired,
Nor be cold gloom thy prison!
Forward the gracious hours have fared,
And see! the sun is risen!
“He breaks the winter of the past;
A green, new earth appears.
Millions, whose life in ice lay fast,
Have thoughts and smiles and tears.
“What though there still need effort, strife?
Though much be still unwon?
Yet warm it mounts, the hour of life;
Death’s frozen hour is done.
“The world’s great order dawns in sheen
After long darkness rude,
Divinelier imaged, clearer seen,
With happier zeal pursued.