World of strange illusion!
Fancy-born delusion!
Reason-bred confusion!
Phantasmagoria!
Love, where shall I find thee?
Faith, how shall I bind thee?
Truth, who has defined thee?
Changing every day.
Streets of hurry scurry!
Fields of fire and fury!
Homes of wear and worry!
Passing quickly by;
Pleasure a wild snatching,
Dying in the catching,
Pain eternal watching
With relentless eye.
Sorrow, old Sin's daughter!
Screams of eldritch laughter!
Burning tears thereafter!
I've felt the vanity;
Still the hope pursuing,
The pursuit ever rueing,
Possession still undoing
The hope's fond prophecy.
II.
Sun! I've seen thy grandeur,
Scenes of gorgeous splendour,
Visions passing wonder
In ocean, sea, and sky;
Thunders o'er us pealing,
Earthquakes 'neath us reeling,
Fiery comets wheeling
Through all immensity.
Virtue! man has crowned thee,
For beautiful he found thee;
Yet millions have disowned thee,
And seek dark Vice's way,
Hypocrisy, deep-hooded,
Injustice still obtruded,
Stern Cruelty, cold-blooded,
Make brother man their prey.
Kind Love's pure affection!
Pity's benediction!
Charity's sweet action!
All blessed urbanities;
Man on man still preying;
Bleating lambkins slaying!
Devouring blood, and saying
All soft humanities.
III.
Dreaming, doubting, moping,
Hopelessly still hoping,
Dimly, darkly groping
My being's mystery;
This sobbing and this sighing,
This laughing and this crying,
This living and this dying—
Man's mortal history!
Why this wild contention?
This mocking, cruel invention—
What the deep intention?
Who shall give replies?
Demons wildly sporting,
God's beautiful distorting,
Or His own hand extorting
Sin-born penalties?