 | Later Lays and Lyrics |  |
THE TWO GATES.
Open in the this world of sin,Are two gates to enter in;
Scenes unknown to mortal view,
Greet the pilgrim passing through.
15
Glows with rich, Elysian gleams;
But more lustrous to behold,
Is the other gate of gold.
When the honey-dew of rest,
Falls upon the troubled breast,
Through the former, open wide,
Oh! how sweet in soul to glide!
O'er its threshold, as we pass,
Seen, as in Agrippa's glass,
Are the dead of long-ago
Moving in procession slow.
Clearly are their forms defined
Round us are their arms entwined,
And the heart, long, sad rejoices,
Hearing old, familiar voices.
Wandering, there, the soul explores
Picturesque, enchanted shores;
Halls of fantasy where reign
Kings, discrowned on earth, again.
Dried would be a fount of bliss,
I'll be borne a world like this,
Should the pilgrim seek in vain
Entrance through that gate to gain,
Brighter than sun, moon or star,
Stands the golden gate ajar;
Through it, to the Angel-Land,
Love and faith walk hand in hand.
Fount of its effulgent blaze,
Is the “Ancient One of Days!”
And a host of minstrels crowned,
Flood celestial air with sound.
16
Sorrow on Time's crumbling shore—
Lost to us although we yearn,
Months and years, for their return.
Thither go, when done with life,
Mother fond, and faithful wife;
Children laid in earth with tears,
Martyred saints and holy seers.
War, in that unclouded realm,
Never dons his brazen helm;
Evil, there erects no throne—
Sorrow is a name unknown.
Would ye seek the blossoms lost,
In this land of killing frost,
For the pilgrimage prepare,
Morn and eve with contrite prayer.
To the clime of Endless Morn,
Hope not, man or woman born,
Passage, with corrupted mind,
Through the Golden Gate to find.
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