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AFTER DEATH.
I.
Oh! beauty of the day and night;
Oh! beauty of the earth and sky;
Oh! charm of sound: Oh! charm of sight:
What will ye change to when I die?
Will ear grown deaf—will eye grown blind,
Leave all your loveliness behind?
Oh! beauty of the earth and sky;
Oh! charm of sound: Oh! charm of sight:
What will ye change to when I die?
Will ear grown deaf—will eye grown blind,
Leave all your loveliness behind?
Answer, oh! mountain heights that raise
Your misty summits cold and grey
Out of the chill white morning haze,
To catch the first faint flush of day:
Oh! shivering breath of early dawn:
Oh! purple darkness scarce withdrawn.
Your misty summits cold and grey
Out of the chill white morning haze,
To catch the first faint flush of day:
Oh! shivering breath of early dawn:
Oh! purple darkness scarce withdrawn.
Oh! woods of winter bleak and bare,
Brown patches on the frore hillside;
Oh! speaking stillness of the air;
Oh! swollen brooks that darkly glide
Through whitened moors; Oh! rosy glow
Of sunrise on the wastes of snow.
Brown patches on the frore hillside;
Oh! speaking stillness of the air;
Oh! swollen brooks that darkly glide
Through whitened moors; Oh! rosy glow
Of sunrise on the wastes of snow.
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Oh! Maytime in the lawny glades:
Oh! forest framework faintly traced;
Oh! restless play of light and shade
'Mid leafy branches interlaced,
When straggling sunbeams steal and stray,
Through foliage darkening day by day.
Oh! forest framework faintly traced;
Oh! restless play of light and shade
'Mid leafy branches interlaced,
When straggling sunbeams steal and stray,
Through foliage darkening day by day.
Oh! wakening of the woodland flowers,
When soft and buoyant blows the breeze;
Oh! happy sound of freshening showers
That plash and patter through the trees.
Oh! raindrops, when the rain is done,
Lit by the outburst of the sun.
When soft and buoyant blows the breeze;
Oh! happy sound of freshening showers
That plash and patter through the trees.
Oh! raindrops, when the rain is done,
Lit by the outburst of the sun.
Oh! stormy splendour of the west
After a dark autumnal day:
Oh! fitful gusts that break the rest
Of dying woods: Oh! miry clay
Wherein the soaking rain sets fast
The dead leaves fluttering in the blast.
After a dark autumnal day:
Oh! fitful gusts that break the rest
Of dying woods: Oh! miry clay
Wherein the soaking rain sets fast
The dead leaves fluttering in the blast.
Oh! balmy breath of summer eves
Laden with perfume soft and warm;
Oh! voice that from thy depth of leaves
Entrancest all things with thy charm;
Oh! tender line of western light
That lingerest far into the night.
Laden with perfume soft and warm;
Oh! voice that from thy depth of leaves
Entrancest all things with thy charm;
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That lingerest far into the night.
Oh! whitening breeze: Oh! purple sea;
Oh! gloomy cliffs that guard the land;
Oh! mid-sea waters rushing free;
Oh! boom of billows on the strand;
Oh! moonlight silvering the sleep
Of inlet ripples hidden deep.
Oh! gloomy cliffs that guard the land;
Oh! mid-sea waters rushing free;
Oh! boom of billows on the strand;
Oh! moonlight silvering the sleep
Of inlet ripples hidden deep.
Oh! brimming river slumbering by
Through level meadows waste and wide;
Oh! stars that stud a moonless sky,
Bathed in the dark, unrippled tide;
Oh! trees that overhang its flow,
Whose shadows fall deep, deep below.
Through level meadows waste and wide;
Oh! stars that stud a moonless sky,
Bathed in the dark, unrippled tide;
Oh! trees that overhang its flow,
Whose shadows fall deep, deep below.
Hearken and answer all and each:
Ye are not mute to those who hear,
And I long since have learned your speech,
And taught and trained a willing ear.
Answer—the years will soon have fled—
What will ye be when I am dead?
Ye are not mute to those who hear,
And I long since have learned your speech,
And taught and trained a willing ear.
Answer—the years will soon have fled—
What will ye be when I am dead?
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II.
Ye answer in the joy ye give;
Your loveliness is your reply;
All that is beautiful must live,
It cannot be that good should die.
Its death is but a changing mood,
A passing into higher good.
Your loveliness is your reply;
All that is beautiful must live,
It cannot be that good should die.
Its death is but a changing mood,
A passing into higher good.
Say shall I take so fair a thought,
Glowing and fresh and fiery-red,
And drink it in till it has wrought
A hidden change, and inly fed
The deepest fountain of my soul
Far from my conscious near control?
Glowing and fresh and fiery-red,
And drink it in till it has wrought
A hidden change, and inly fed
The deepest fountain of my soul
Far from my conscious near control?
Or think and think its meaning out,
Checking it as it flows along,
Till from the clay of earthen doubt
Vessels are fashioned, firm and strong,
Wherein this molten stream of mind
Shall take a form and be confined?
Checking it as it flows along,
Till from the clay of earthen doubt
Vessels are fashioned, firm and strong,
Wherein this molten stream of mind
Shall take a form and be confined?
Or half rebellious, half content,
Watch how its first, fresh, fiery force
Cleft it a channel, then when spent
Its vigour, shape its further course
In harmony with this, and so
Guiding, be guided by its flow?
Watch how its first, fresh, fiery force
Cleft it a channel, then when spent
Its vigour, shape its further course
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Guiding, be guided by its flow?
III.
For see the Ages stream along,
And slowly, surely, all our days,
Out of the ceaseless, changeful throng
The good stands forth and lives and stays.
The good cause conquers in the strife:
Its note is that of endless life.
And slowly, surely, all our days,
Out of the ceaseless, changeful throng
The good stands forth and lives and stays.
The good cause conquers in the strife:
Its note is that of endless life.
For think not that each passing age
Dies when its sands have ceased to run;
Immortal is the heritage
Of lofty aims, of work well done.
The dead seed watered by our tears
Lives and bears fruit in after years.
Dies when its sands have ceased to run;
Immortal is the heritage
Of lofty aims, of work well done.
The dead seed watered by our tears
Lives and bears fruit in after years.
Imprisoned in its passing shape
It pants to gain a widened range;
Time works for it a half escape;
But changeless through all seeming change,
The pure and naked good lives on
Most near us when we deem it gone.
It pants to gain a widened range;
Time works for it a half escape;
But changeless through all seeming change,
The pure and naked good lives on
Most near us when we deem it gone.
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Oh! thou who didst consume thy heart
With endless longing to express,
In thought and action, song and art,
Dreams of ideal loveliness,
Thy cities, Hellas, rose and fell,—
But not thy spirit's subtle spell.
With endless longing to express,
In thought and action, song and art,
Dreams of ideal loveliness,
Thy cities, Hellas, rose and fell,—
But not thy spirit's subtle spell.
Oh! thou whose iron life sufficed
To bind the world and make it thine,
Whose bonds the tender touch of Christ
Charmed into chains of love Divine,—
Our life was moulded by thy force,
Through all our veins thy blood doth course.
To bind the world and make it thine,
Whose bonds the tender touch of Christ
Charmed into chains of love Divine,—
Our life was moulded by thy force,
Through all our veins thy blood doth course.
And Hellas yearning after light,
And Rome that bowed herself to Law,
They lived wherein they lived aright,
Pursuing all the good they saw.
What though Barbarians broke their walls,
Their mighty life-work never falls.
And Rome that bowed herself to Law,
They lived wherein they lived aright,
Pursuing all the good they saw.
What though Barbarians broke their walls,
Their mighty life-work never falls.
They shaped, they built the human soul
Immortal in the gifts they gave:—
But those that sinned and scorned control,
Their vices swept into the grave.
Fierce as the flood of fiery rain
That drowned the cities of the plain.
Immortal in the gifts they gave:—
But those that sinned and scorned control,
Their vices swept into the grave.
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That drowned the cities of the plain.
And all who charmed and taught mankind,
Are they not living now as then?—
Deep in the deepened, gladdened mind,
Deep in the inner lives of men.
The glory of the Hero's name
Measures a truer, vaster fame.
Are they not living now as then?—
Deep in the deepened, gladdened mind,
Deep in the inner lives of men.
The glory of the Hero's name
Measures a truer, vaster fame.
And each in turn reflects the whole,
The world-wide laws are writ within:
Doubt not that in each separate soul
Each noble deed, each scorn of sin
Lives, and each purely joyous breath
Works a deliverance from death.
The world-wide laws are writ within:
Doubt not that in each separate soul
Each noble deed, each scorn of sin
Lives, and each purely joyous breath
Works a deliverance from death.
Ah! in this deathlessness of earth,
A glimpse how faint soe'er is given
Of life that knows no time, no birth,
The immortality of Heaven:
Howe'er it be, good surely lives,
Eternal gifts the Eternal gives.
A glimpse how faint soe'er is given
Of life that knows no time, no birth,
The immortality of Heaven:
Howe'er it be, good surely lives,
Eternal gifts the Eternal gives.
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IV.
But ah! a chilling doubt awakes
If Beauty be so pure a good,
That all the shifting forms it takes,—
Its earthly, partial, hourly food—
Be snatched from Death's advancing wave
And blest with life beyond the grave.
If Beauty be so pure a good,
That all the shifting forms it takes,—
Its earthly, partial, hourly food—
Be snatched from Death's advancing wave
And blest with life beyond the grave.
Are we not strangely built and blent—
Eternal Beings fixed in time?
By toilful infinite ascent,
Stage beyond Stage we climb and climb;
New forms of mind, new modes of sense
Grow out, we know not how or whence,
Eternal Beings fixed in time?
By toilful infinite ascent,
Stage beyond Stage we climb and climb;
New forms of mind, new modes of sense
Grow out, we know not how or whence,
Ever revealing higher things;—
Yet are the lower unannulled;
We creep and crawl though we have wings:
Our earthly senses are not dulled.
The tree that rises, day by day
Strikes stronger roots into the clay.
Yet are the lower unannulled;
We creep and crawl though we have wings:
Our earthly senses are not dulled.
The tree that rises, day by day
Strikes stronger roots into the clay.
But as one gains a loftier height,
And breathes its atmosphere serene,
A wider world enchants the sight,
Things that were hid before are seen,
Bathed in a haze of violet glow
Unnoticed when he trod below.
And breathes its atmosphere serene,
A wider world enchants the sight,
Things that were hid before are seen,
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Unnoticed when he trod below.
So when the soul had gained at last
A clearer ether, purer love,
Back on the lower senses cast
Reflections of the light above,
Piercing the gloom where life began,
Knowledge and beauty came to man.
A clearer ether, purer love,
Back on the lower senses cast
Reflections of the light above,
Piercing the gloom where life began,
Knowledge and beauty came to man.
For think not that the fleshly eye
Sees beauty in the starry skies,
Or is athirst to peer and pry
Deep into nature's mysteries;
From hour to hour it lives and feeds
The body's momentary needs.
Sees beauty in the starry skies,
Or is athirst to peer and pry
Deep into nature's mysteries;
From hour to hour it lives and feeds
The body's momentary needs.
Our fathers saw and heard as we,
They breathed the balm of summer air;
They trod the land; they sailed the sea;
Yet knew not that the earth was fair.
They only asked if it were good
To yield them raiment, shelter, food.
They breathed the balm of summer air;
They trod the land; they sailed the sea;
Yet knew not that the earth was fair.
They only asked if it were good
To yield them raiment, shelter, food.
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Desolate was the earth they trod;
But we have reaped where they had sown.
The buried seed, the cold damp sod,
The soaking show'rs were theirs alone.
Ours is the wealth of golden grain,
The fuller joy, the vaster pain.
But we have reaped where they had sown.
The buried seed, the cold damp sod,
The soaking show'rs were theirs alone.
Ours is the wealth of golden grain,
The fuller joy, the vaster pain.
High, high in Heaven springs the fount
Of sacred light that floods the earth;
With bleeding feet they climbed life's mount,
Led by an ever-deepening dearth.
And all their toiling was to win
The heights of soul that are within.
Of sacred light that floods the earth;
With bleeding feet they climbed life's mount,
Led by an ever-deepening dearth.
And all their toiling was to win
The heights of soul that are within.
Ah! but when death has set us free
From thrall of sense and earthly lust,
Will not the heart unfettered see
Beyond, behind the crumbling dust
That Heavenly splendour bright and bare
Whose faintest ray made earth so fair?
From thrall of sense and earthly lust,
Will not the heart unfettered see
Beyond, behind the crumbling dust
That Heavenly splendour bright and bare
Whose faintest ray made earth so fair?
Ay, in an instant all the grace
That poet dreamed of, artist felt,
That smiled on Nature's goodly face,
Shall, as the stifling life-clouds melt,
Dawn, break, burst, blaze upon the sight,
Full from the soul's intensest light.
That poet dreamed of, artist felt,
That smiled on Nature's goodly face,
Shall, as the stifling life-clouds melt,
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Full from the soul's intensest light.
V.
Yet no—for surely that were God
And I, alas! am worthless clay,
And dare I hope that when this clod
Breaks into dust—yet who shall say?
If life be one long Heavenward gaze,
Death crowns the purpose of its days;
And I, alas! am worthless clay,
And dare I hope that when this clod
Breaks into dust—yet who shall say?
If life be one long Heavenward gaze,
Death crowns the purpose of its days;
Then—only then—and what am I?
Have I so hungered for God's love?
Have I so fixed my hopes on high?
So gazed and ever gazed above,
That I could face with unquenched eyes
The blinding blaze of noonday skies?
Have I so hungered for God's love?
Have I so fixed my hopes on high?
So gazed and ever gazed above,
That I could face with unquenched eyes
The blinding blaze of noonday skies?
Ah! no, if only in the beams
Of God's own light earth's beauty dwells,
I must resign my happy dreams
Of slaking at its purest wells
My thirst, and ere I die must take
One last fond look at earth, and wake.
Of God's own light earth's beauty dwells,
I must resign my happy dreams
Of slaking at its purest wells
My thirst, and ere I die must take
One last fond look at earth, and wake.
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Yet somewhere in the human breast
The highest home of God is set,
Unseen, alas! and dimly guessed,—
Only when tears of yearning wet
And cloud our earthward eyes, we see;—
God dwells within, yet not in me.
The highest home of God is set,
Unseen, alas! and dimly guessed,—
Only when tears of yearning wet
And cloud our earthward eyes, we see;—
God dwells within, yet not in me.
No longer from my spirit flows
The light that beautifies the earth;
From the eternal fount it rose:
In God alone it has its birth,—
Far, far from me whom self and sin
Still sunder from His home within.
The light that beautifies the earth;
From the eternal fount it rose:
In God alone it has its birth,—
Far, far from me whom self and sin
Still sunder from His home within.
Yet be God where or what He may,
His gifts are all untouched by death,
My thoughts must flow another way,
But still be guided by my faith,
Still strive to reach that goal it gives—
All Good, all Truth, all Beauty lives.
His gifts are all untouched by death,
My thoughts must flow another way,
But still be guided by my faith,
Still strive to reach that goal it gives—
All Good, all Truth, all Beauty lives.
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VI.
Yes, there are times when all I see,
And hear, and feel, and think upon,
Seems meaningless apart from me;
I live: all otherness has gone:
The buoyant overmastering soul
Claims for itself to be the whole.
And hear, and feel, and think upon,
Seems meaningless apart from me;
I live: all otherness has gone:
The buoyant overmastering soul
Claims for itself to be the whole.
But now my mind sinks back, and I
Am just the self apparent, near,
Narrow and partial: no reply
Comes from the vast, enisling sphere
Of spirit, limitless, divine,
So far from me, so strangely mine.
Am just the self apparent, near,
Narrow and partial: no reply
Comes from the vast, enisling sphere
Of spirit, limitless, divine,
So far from me, so strangely mine.
A fragment now, I gaze about,
An atom in a boundless whole:
A myriad forces from without
Meet in my being and control
Its every motion, and my mind
Is the one central point they find.
An atom in a boundless whole:
A myriad forces from without
Meet in my being and control
Its every motion, and my mind
Is the one central point they find.
For God's wide world of sky and earth,—
His wider world of souls of men
Have been around me from my birth;
And as through them He shaped me then,
Through them He moulds me day by day,
A sculptor moulding passive clay.
His wider world of souls of men
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And as through them He shaped me then,
Through them He moulds me day by day,
A sculptor moulding passive clay.
Oh! happy he who feeleth oft
That tender, plastic influence
Of Nature's beauty stealing soft
Into the pores of gladdened sense,
Through deeper feelings sinking in
To quicken springs of life within.
That tender, plastic influence
Of Nature's beauty stealing soft
Into the pores of gladdened sense,
Through deeper feelings sinking in
To quicken springs of life within.
For never does the hand Divine
Fashion us with so kind a touch;
I bless Thee that this earth of Thine,
Oh! God, has taught my soul so much,
That other hearts can only gain
Through bruising grief, or scorching pain.
Fashion us with so kind a touch;
I bless Thee that this earth of Thine,
Oh! God, has taught my soul so much,
That other hearts can only gain
Through bruising grief, or scorching pain.
Long nurtured in her kindly arms,
Well have I studied Nature's face;
Her meanest creature has its charms,
Her smiles, her frowns alike have grace.
To each new change her features wear
My soul replies, and all are fair.
Well have I studied Nature's face;
Her meanest creature has its charms,
Her smiles, her frowns alike have grace.
To each new change her features wear
My soul replies, and all are fair.
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The winter winds are strong and stern;
The summer evenings melt with love;
With wailing autumn gusts I yearn,
And when the moon is high above,
There falls on me the healing balm
Of deep, unutterable calm.
The summer evenings melt with love;
With wailing autumn gusts I yearn,
And when the moon is high above,
There falls on me the healing balm
Of deep, unutterable calm.
Wild thoughts within me surge and seethe
When winds and waters are at strife:
On bounding April morns I breathe
The joy of free, unconscious life.
The moaning ocean bears to me
A whisper from Eternity.
When winds and waters are at strife:
On bounding April morns I breathe
The joy of free, unconscious life.
The moaning ocean bears to me
A whisper from Eternity.
Then all that I have ever known
Of Nature's beauty lingers yet,
More truly with me, more my own,
Than when its first bright semblance met
My senses, and my eager breast,
Panted with gladness unexpressed.
Of Nature's beauty lingers yet,
More truly with me, more my own,
Than when its first bright semblance met
My senses, and my eager breast,
Panted with gladness unexpressed.
Each glimpse of beauty, gay or grave,
That reached my soul, is written there,
Lives in the impress that it gave,
A portion of me free to share
My birthright in the world beyond,
The larger life, the broken bond.
That reached my soul, is written there,
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A portion of me free to share
My birthright in the world beyond,
The larger life, the broken bond.
Yet change the language—who can doubt?
Man is not clay inert and cold,
But through the maze of things without
His inner nature doth unfold,
As folded buds through sun and shower
Grow into leaf, and fruit, and flower.
Man is not clay inert and cold,
But through the maze of things without
His inner nature doth unfold,
As folded buds through sun and shower
Grow into leaf, and fruit, and flower.
Ay, but the meaning still remains:
The joys of Nature shall endure,—
The spirit guards whate'er it gains,
And I shall see them bright and pure,
What time, the moment's darkness past,
I reach my inmost soul at last.
The joys of Nature shall endure,—
The spirit guards whate'er it gains,
And I shall see them bright and pure,
What time, the moment's darkness past,
I reach my inmost soul at last.
VII.
Oh, light! pure light! my soul sinks back,
Dazed and bewildered, from the brink.
Below, the rolling clouds are black
Or overbright: I cease to think,
My soul is numbed as in a swoon,
Sunstricken by the blaze of noon.
Dazed and bewildered, from the brink.
Below, the rolling clouds are black
Or overbright: I cease to think,
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Sunstricken by the blaze of noon.
Oh! happy, richly-detailed life;
Oh! shifting colours, changing shapes;
Oh! light in shade; oh! peace in strife;
I cling to ye, as time escapes:
I dread the flood of fiercely bright,
Changeless intensity of light.
Oh! shifting colours, changing shapes;
Oh! light in shade; oh! peace in strife;
I cling to ye, as time escapes:
I dread the flood of fiercely bright,
Changeless intensity of light.
Fool! that I paint the bliss of Heaven
In words that dazzle and distress:
To mortal lips was never given
Immortal glory to express.
Howe'er I reach my hands to gain
Words that suffice 'tis all in vain.
In words that dazzle and distress:
To mortal lips was never given
Immortal glory to express.
Howe'er I reach my hands to gain
Words that suffice 'tis all in vain.
I think that Nature's charms are there
As here on earth, but thought deludes:
Does it not mock me then, whene'er
I think away the streams and woods?
Does it not mock me when I climb
To regions out of space and time.
As here on earth, but thought deludes:
Does it not mock me then, whene'er
I think away the streams and woods?
Does it not mock me when I climb
To regions out of space and time.
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Oh! if I needs must represent
The after-life, the world above—
Shall not my spirit be content
To picture it through things I love.
In peace and joy the soul has wings;
From pure emotion insight springs.
The after-life, the world above—
Shall not my spirit be content
To picture it through things I love.
In peace and joy the soul has wings;
From pure emotion insight springs.
Ye will be there then, ever there.
Oh! hill and plain; oh! night and noon:
Oh! billowy sea; oh! balmy air:
Oh! sinking sun; oh! lonely moon!
Ye will be there? Ah, who can tell?
Howe'er it be, it must be well.
Oh! hill and plain; oh! night and noon:
Oh! billowy sea; oh! balmy air:
Oh! sinking sun; oh! lonely moon!
Ye will be there? Ah, who can tell?
Howe'er it be, it must be well.
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