 | At Sunset |  |
50
THE DEPARTING CENTURY
I was baptized in blood, and saw the light
When wrong paraded in the garb of right,
When dreams of poet and of ancient sage,
Illumining the world's confusèd page,
Were crossed with sanguine horror, guilt whose shame
Did blot the nobler with the baser name.
War's furious pulses coursed within my veins
While dear my spirit held enfranchised plains
Where heavenly peace, whom savage discords wound,
'Twixt plant and plough a refuge calm had found.
When wrong paraded in the garb of right,
When dreams of poet and of ancient sage,
Illumining the world's confusèd page,
Were crossed with sanguine horror, guilt whose shame
Did blot the nobler with the baser name.
War's furious pulses coursed within my veins
While dear my spirit held enfranchised plains
Where heavenly peace, whom savage discords wound,
'Twixt plant and plough a refuge calm had found.
In sooth no common destiny was mine,
Truth's oracles my wisdom did divine.
Life's faded flag, in heroes' heart's blood dyed,
I raised and floated, ever to abide
Where cloud nor mist nor armament should hide.
Truth's oracles my wisdom did divine.
Life's faded flag, in heroes' heart's blood dyed,
I raised and floated, ever to abide
Where cloud nor mist nor armament should hide.
The mellow beauty of my afternoon
Provoked the prophet's word, the poet's rune,
And sun did never set so grand and free
As mine, in gold and crimson blazonry.
Provoked the prophet's word, the poet's rune,
51
As mine, in gold and crimson blazonry.
Above my ashes do not celebrate
The contests blind of old imagined Fate.
Build me enduring monuments of stone,
But no uncertain message write thereon.
The contests blind of old imagined Fate.
Build me enduring monuments of stone,
But no uncertain message write thereon.
Conceived in Doubt, engendered of Despair,
Pledged to all deeds that men may dream and dare,
I moved unfaltering to the solemn height
Where warring rainbows meet in perfect light.
Truth was my guest, belief in her my power,
And of such good transcendent was my dower
That I shall live in memory and in Fame
As long as man his manhood's meed may claim;
Beloved for fetters loosed, for veils unbound,
For God's great word, by God's great order crowned.
Pledged to all deeds that men may dream and dare,
I moved unfaltering to the solemn height
Where warring rainbows meet in perfect light.
Truth was my guest, belief in her my power,
And of such good transcendent was my dower
That I shall live in memory and in Fame
As long as man his manhood's meed may claim;
Beloved for fetters loosed, for veils unbound,
For God's great word, by God's great order crowned.
| At Sunset | |