 | Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) |  |
[XVII. I saw in dreams a system of dead worlds]
I saw in dreams a system of dead worlds,
Rolling, huge cinders, round a mightier sun,
Itself a cinder. “Each world,” said a voice,
“Was once, when millions of slow years had passed,
Glorious for beauty nature dowered it with,
But still more glorious for the habitants
That rose from ape to angel on its orb.
Then came, when millions of more years were spent,
Gradual extinction of the vast sun's fires..
The system rolls to-day one mockery. Look!”
Rolling, huge cinders, round a mightier sun,
Itself a cinder. “Each world,” said a voice,
“Was once, when millions of slow years had passed,
Glorious for beauty nature dowered it with,
But still more glorious for the habitants
That rose from ape to angel on its orb.
Then came, when millions of more years were spent,
Gradual extinction of the vast sun's fires..
The system rolls to-day one mockery. Look!”
Then in my dream I asked: “Will our sun fade
Like this, and all his courtier planets pale
Thus impotently?”
Like this, and all his courtier planets pale
Thus impotently?”
“Yes,” the voice replied;
“With worlds in space to evolve is to dissolve,
As even with us being born is but to die.
An individual immortality
Haunts with its hollow myth men's trusting hearts.
Forsake that shadow, and live thy human life
Nobly and adequately till the end.”
“With worlds in space to evolve is to dissolve,
As even with us being born is but to die.
An individual immortality
241
Forsake that shadow, and live thy human life
Nobly and adequately till the end.”
“But if such end be nothingness?” I mourned.
“Then count thou on what flavorous opiates
This nothingness will brew thee. Count thou, too,
On the soft unimaginable down
Its pillows hold for thee; nor fail to think
How royaller than all earth's emperors
Man goes to his last rest who round himself
Doth wrap the draperies of eternity.”
This nothingness will brew thee. Count thou, too,
On the soft unimaginable down
Its pillows hold for thee; nor fail to think
How royaller than all earth's emperors
Man goes to his last rest who round himself
Doth wrap the draperies of eternity.”
| Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) | |