XXV.
FAREWELL TO MORTAL LIFE.
1
Breath, impregnate with a dream—
As the cloud with a sun-beam,
Ere descends the tempest-stream—
Farewell!
Thing of shadows; thing of fears;
Floweret drench'd by torrent-tears;
Splendour which a foam-wreath wears—
Farewell!
2
Web upon a whirling gale;
Murmur in a desert vale
From a wretch whose cold limbs fail
In snow;
Flutter of an insect's wing,
Gasping in another's sting;
Spray of an in-veiled spring—
Art thou.
3
Whence thou flowest, where thou tendest,
Why we love thee whilst thou rendest,
In what fearful depths thou endest,
None weet:
Leaping from the limbs of pleasure,
With all pains is thy deep measure,
From thy birth to thine erasure,
Replete.
4
From an atom dost thou rise
Into framed harmonies,
And high thoughts that walk the skies
Sublime;
Till thy weary lamp outburneth,
And to nought its light returneth:
Dust is all thy marvel earneth
From Time.
5
Though we salve and though we preach,
We nor medicine, nor teach:
Thy charms lurk beyond our reach,
Strange spell!
Thou, nor thine were of my choosing,
And thy loss is nothing losing:
From my frame uninterfusing—
Farewell!
