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65
PREVISIONS.
Yet shall be waked the slumbering years
By the quick tramp of guilty war,
And blameless eyes be scorched by tears
Wrung from new depths of old despair.
By the quick tramp of guilty war,
And blameless eyes be scorched by tears
Wrung from new depths of old despair.
Hate shall yet brew his venom's blight
By heat that ne'er from vengeance warps,
Till sleepless, pale, unpitying night
Casts at day's door a mangled corpse.
By heat that ne'er from vengeance warps,
Till sleepless, pale, unpitying night
Casts at day's door a mangled corpse.
66
Young truths shall still their counsel keep,
Silent 'mid clack of hoary lies,
That, servile bold, maskt manhood steep
In slime of stale hypocrisies.
Silent 'mid clack of hoary lies,
That, servile bold, maskt manhood steep
In slime of stale hypocrisies.
As lightning's breath at tranquil noon
Upbuilds beneath the western vault
Its far-off cloud-based batteries, soon
To volley the dread thunderbolt,
Upbuilds beneath the western vault
Its far-off cloud-based batteries, soon
To volley the dread thunderbolt,
In life's warm lulls shall still be nurst
Hot ires, that, foully fed, and pent
In Custom's coward cages, burst
On the rackt world with ghastly rent.
Hot ires, that, foully fed, and pent
In Custom's coward cages, burst
On the rackt world with ghastly rent.
And still from age's sensual lip
Shall ooze the lees of rotted truth,
Dripping, a daily upas-drip
In the sweet blood of listening youth.
Shall ooze the lees of rotted truth,
Dripping, a daily upas-drip
In the sweet blood of listening youth.
67
But truth, though tortured, is truth still,
The stanchest tool wherewith doth ply
In the world's sway his regnant will,
The God who can't create a lie.
The stanchest tool wherewith doth ply
In the world's sway his regnant will,
The God who can't create a lie.
Lies are all human, fibres true
Perversely twisted in the strain
Of sense, that lusts beyond its due,
Stifling high joy with pampered pain.
Perversely twisted in the strain
Of sense, that lusts beyond its due,
Stifling high joy with pampered pain.
Nor in life's swarming womb, where sleep
Action's full germs, is there a seed
But from its vivid core might leap
The graces of a sinless deed.
Action's full germs, is there a seed
But from its vivid core might leap
The graces of a sinless deed.
On Time's green stem the clustered fruit
Eternity's replenishings
With such remedial sap recruit,
That age to age aye bettering brings.
Eternity's replenishings
With such remedial sap recruit,
That age to age aye bettering brings.
68
Thus by the soul's aspiring toil
Her earthly garment shall be wove
With ever dwindling taint of soil,
Till human life be heavenly love.
Her earthly garment shall be wove
With ever dwindling taint of soil,
Till human life be heavenly love.
1857.
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