 | Diana's Looking Glass and Other Poems by Charles D. Bell |  |
55
“A WORLD OUT OF COURSE.”
Ah, ye who fain would build a heav'n below,
And ante-date that fair Millennial Morn,
Which is to seal the source whence sorrows flow,
And strip the roses of their piercing thorn,
Think you to purify the weary years,
Watered so long with blood, and wet with tears?
And ante-date that fair Millennial Morn,
Which is to seal the source whence sorrows flow,
And strip the roses of their piercing thorn,
Think you to purify the weary years,
Watered so long with blood, and wet with tears?
Perfect your social systems, if you can,
Let governments be just, give equal rights,
And knit as loving Brothers, man to man,
Throne sacred Freedom on her ancient heights,
Enrich the poor, and smite all selfish wealth,
Let Science by wise laws secure our health.
Let governments be just, give equal rights,
And knit as loving Brothers, man to man,
Throne sacred Freedom on her ancient heights,
Enrich the poor, and smite all selfish wealth,
Let Science by wise laws secure our health.
Do all you may, still will there pass a light
From earth which never can return again,
No flower shall seem as fair, no sun as bright,
As when unsounded were the depths of pain,
And still unknown that passion of deep grief,
To which no human aid can bring relief.
From earth which never can return again,
No flower shall seem as fair, no sun as bright,
As when unsounded were the depths of pain,
And still unknown that passion of deep grief,
To which no human aid can bring relief.
56
Sad severances still will break the heart,
Not always springing from the open grave,
Rather from sundered love,—souls torn apart,—
For which no healing balm, no Lethe's wave,
Nor for sick chambers where the stricken lie,
On beds of long protracted agony.
Not always springing from the open grave,
Rather from sundered love,—souls torn apart,—
For which no healing balm, no Lethe's wave,
Nor for sick chambers where the stricken lie,
On beds of long protracted agony.
Here tendernesses of the dearest friend,
His love, his assiduity, and care,
Cannot prevent the wish that all may end,
And bring the sole sweet solace of despair;—
That death, best, kindest friend of all, will come,
And loose the silver cord, and take us home.
His love, his assiduity, and care,
Cannot prevent the wish that all may end,
And bring the sole sweet solace of despair;—
That death, best, kindest friend of all, will come,
And loose the silver cord, and take us home.
And what of empty chair, and vacant place
The form of loved one never more will fill,
Whose dear voice silenced, and whose vanished face
Move us to grief no anodyne can still,
Fence as you may your home, love cannot close
The door 'gainst Death, most pitiless of foes.
The form of loved one never more will fill,
Whose dear voice silenced, and whose vanished face
Move us to grief no anodyne can still,
Fence as you may your home, love cannot close
The door 'gainst Death, most pitiless of foes.
While love remains, what love was from the first,
The most imperious passion man can feel,
While death the surest of all ills, and worst,
Tramples all human hopes beneath his heel,
Alas! earth's truest music still will be
Set to the sadness of the minor key.
The most imperious passion man can feel,
While death the surest of all ills, and worst,
Tramples all human hopes beneath his heel,
Alas! earth's truest music still will be
Set to the sadness of the minor key.
| Diana's Looking Glass and Other Poems by Charles D. Bell | |