The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
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 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
163
SONNET XV
“IF ONE COULD LIVE FOR EVER!”
If one could live for ever!—carrying on
The life of old Assyria till to-day!
See era after era pass away
Yet be oneself,—though all men else had gone.
The sun to-day is the same sun that shone
On Saul and David: why should man, I pray,
Be less long-lived than its fierce golden spray?
E'en the moon lives, though age has made her wan.
O God, to live for ever!—passing through
Each age, and knowing the ecstasy of each:
The same gaze that to-day, quite youthful, falls
On the dim dome and facade of St. Paul's
Having beheld the Pyramids quite new
And flashed response to Cleopatra's speech.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |