 | Studies of Sensation and Event |  |
106
LIFE.
Oh! who said that life was a vanishing show!
A cheat to humanity given!
How could he be poet, when poets, we know,
Can change even hell into heaven!
Oh! how could he slander my beautiful world,
So softly and brilliantly changing;
Over each fading scene fairer hues are unfurled,
So that fancy may ever go ranging.
Oh lovely is the green green earth,
With stars around her beaming:
And glorious is a mortal's birth,
For life is more than dreaming.
A cheat to humanity given!
How could he be poet, when poets, we know,
Can change even hell into heaven!
Oh! how could he slander my beautiful world,
So softly and brilliantly changing;
Over each fading scene fairer hues are unfurled,
So that fancy may ever go ranging.
Oh lovely is the green green earth,
With stars around her beaming:
And glorious is a mortal's birth,
For life is more than dreaming.
He sighed that the blossoms of beauty and youth
Should brighten the path to a tomb;
Why did he forget that their goodness and truth,
Would shine on and soften its gloom!
Would shine on and soften? sweet minstrel!—no, rather
Would change to a sweet quiet shade,
That haven of rest where mortalities gather,
Like babes, in a calm cradle laid!
Oh lovely is the green green earth,
With stars around her beaming;
And glorious is a mortal's birth,
For life is more than dreaming.
Should brighten the path to a tomb;
107
Would shine on and soften its gloom!
Would shine on and soften? sweet minstrel!—no, rather
Would change to a sweet quiet shade,
That haven of rest where mortalities gather,
Like babes, in a calm cradle laid!
Oh lovely is the green green earth,
With stars around her beaming;
And glorious is a mortal's birth,
For life is more than dreaming.
| Studies of Sensation and Event | |