 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
141
XXIII. SINE LABE ORIGINALI CONCEPTA.
When man gives up the ghost, behold,
Honouring his God's Decree august
His body melts: the mortal mould
Revisiteth its native dust.
Honouring his God's Decree august
His body melts: the mortal mould
Revisiteth its native dust.
The bulwarks of the breast give way:
Those eyes that glorying watched the sun:
Each atom-speck of mortal clay
Foregoes its nature—all save one.
Those eyes that glorying watched the sun:
Each atom-speck of mortal clay
Foregoes its nature—all save one.
A something—germ or power—survives,
That seed which linked, from birth to death,
The structure's myriad cyclic lives
That remnant never perisheth!
That seed which linked, from birth to death,
The structure's myriad cyclic lives
That remnant never perisheth!
That seed reserved, too fine, too small
For eye to scan, for chance to mar
Shall soar to meet God's trumpet-call,
Re-clad, and glittering like a star.
For eye to scan, for chance to mar
Shall soar to meet God's trumpet-call,
Re-clad, and glittering like a star.
With Man so fared it at the Fall:
The Race lay dead: She did not die:
One seed survived—the hope of all—
Thy pledge, Redeemed Humanity!
The Race lay dead: She did not die:
One seed survived—the hope of all—
Thy pledge, Redeemed Humanity!
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