 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
DEATH NEVER PAUSES.
The thought how dread, that not a moment fleets
But with it many a soul hath sunk away
To that untraced Abyss, within whose womb
Six thousand Years have buried all they bore!
Yes, while around unvalued pleasures throng
In the soft atmosphere of human smiles
We play with time, as infants do with toys,
And rarely think, how Death is heaping fast
The new-dug graves; exulting o'er a wreck;
Or counting victims from the corpse-strewn sea,
Or laughing where the thunder-bolt has dash'd
Some lord of earth to nothing! Then the flood
And blast, the conflagration dire, disease
And danger, death-bed horrors, broken hearts,
And exiles in their damp-wall'd dungeons chain'd,—
Oh! each and all would melt a moral tear
If known or felt, from Pleasure's sated eye.
But with it many a soul hath sunk away
To that untraced Abyss, within whose womb
Six thousand Years have buried all they bore!
Yes, while around unvalued pleasures throng
In the soft atmosphere of human smiles
We play with time, as infants do with toys,
And rarely think, how Death is heaping fast
The new-dug graves; exulting o'er a wreck;
Or counting victims from the corpse-strewn sea,
Or laughing where the thunder-bolt has dash'd
Some lord of earth to nothing! Then the flood
And blast, the conflagration dire, disease
And danger, death-bed horrors, broken hearts,
And exiles in their damp-wall'd dungeons chain'd,—
Oh! each and all would melt a moral tear
If known or felt, from Pleasure's sated eye.
Then come, poetic Spirit! plume thy strength,
Thy wings expand, Imagination, wake!
Traverse the troubled world from shore to shore,
That with a panoramic glance my soul
May vision forth dark tragedies of Death!
Thy wings expand, Imagination, wake!
Traverse the troubled world from shore to shore,
That with a panoramic glance my soul
May vision forth dark tragedies of Death!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |