University of Virginia Library

There was delight among the unconscious sons
Of Earth when dew-lipped Eve upon the sky
In virgin beauty stood and bade adieu
To the Sun-Spirit as his crimson wings
In the far distance waved like gossamer;
And there was gladness in the look she threw
Into the blue infinitude to watch
The latest beam of day; and, when she turned
Her twilight glance upon this world, and spread
Her dusky veil o'er nature, there was love
In her ethereal attitude, and joy,
That had its being in sweet innocence,
Illumed her melting features winningly.
But Earth's gay habitants beheld the beams
Of Uriel's eye slow fading, and the soft
Dimness of eve condensing into night,
With feelings unallied to holiness
Or breathing of the pure serenity,
That flowed from all things; on false pleasures bent
Of sense, they waited but the closing night
To veil their gaiety and mirth and crime.

But Night, at man's unholy madness wroth,
And startled at his wassailry, arose
From her dark couch and shrieked so fearfully
To heaven that angels on each other gazed
In deep astonishment, for sinners chained
In hell ne'er framed a cry so piercing; looks
Of doubt and trouble passed ere tortured Night
Creation's guardians saw; but then she raised
Her thousand voices and invoked the Lord
Of All that Time might be no more! A voice
From heaven's eternal throne of light came forth
And angels echoed—“Time shall be no more!”
Then portent stillness stretched her leaden wings
Immovably o'er earth and nature slept
In deathful slumbers, save a startling moan
Involuntary ever and anon,
When the lascivious song of godless mirth
And the loud shout of revel rose and went
Forth, the dread witnesses of sin and crime.
The stars looked down and wept, and whispers stole
Along the firmament from each to each,
Communicating doom, while man's seared eye,
From which the spirit had retired in shame,
Read nought but peacefulness and pardon full
For all his vileness in the arching sky.

Morn leapt upon the mountains, but the light
Was gory crimson, and the lurid vault
Seemed panting while the day-break airs went by.
No lyric voice was heard; the loveliest birds
By pairs sat mutely on the trees, nor moved
Though the green leaves, all crumbled into dust,
Dropped o'er them rapidly; the wondering herds
Wandered unresting o'er the ground and roared
With pain, for the hot earth by inward fires
Was fast consuming; the fell reptiles hissed
Distractingly and thrust their venomed fangs
Against their rocky dens till their last joy,
The woe of man, was gone, and their fierce pain
Augmented by the act that meant relief;
The finny clans of ocean rose and spread
Upon its surface to escape the steam
Of its wide boiling billows, and the loud
Flapping of tortured bodies numberless
Frothed o'er the waters for a thousand leagues.
All nature was in agony—save man!
He slept amid the wailings and the shrieks
Of things to whom eternity was nothing.
What sound will wake the sleeper? Hark!—'tis nought.

'Mid volumes of dark vapour rose the Sun
Affrightingly effulgent, and his glare
Changed the dun concave to a sea of blood.
The World reeled to and fro and things of life
Gasped sobbingly for breath in the thick air.
Beneath day's baleful gleam rocks melted down
And mountains into lava seas—woods fell
And crumbled instantly to earth—fierce flames
Drank up the hissing streams and the hot ground
Rung with a hollow moan. Where—where was man?
Slumbering! What sound will wake the sleeper? Hark!

Creation, wake! it is the knell of Time!
Attend his burial in Eternity!
There sounds the Archangel's clarion! The skies
Roll rapidly away; the Sun hath gone
Down the abyss of chaos; demons throng
The gulf o'er which the world reels fearfully.
That fiendish laugh, oh, hear it!—See! the Earth,
The very dying Earth doth rise and shriek
As trembling with the dread that hell hath ta'en
Possession of her beautiful domains.
Darkness becomes material, and throngs
Of waking wretches grasp its stinging folds
With the tenacity of utter woe,
And, though their hearts are bursting, still they cling
'Till their frames mingle with the hell-fold night
And they are changed to demons!—Light as pure
As Him from whom it issues burns above,
And songs of glory echo yells of pain.

With one deep, hollow, rending groan the Earth
Dissolved and fell in fiery particles
Through the dense darkness of chaotic worlds;
And 'mid the horror-palsied multitudes
The fiends passed with infernal laughter while
Unutterable thoughts of bitter woe
Thronged many a burning brain and quivering lips
Strove vainly words of prayer to frame and tongues,
Erst eloquent coadjutors of thought,
Hung agonizing down till they became
Serpents, and fastened on each passer-by
Convulsively, and desperate bands there stood
Close woven to each other's agony,
Yet every moment aggravating pain
General by private instances of spite.
Time hurried to a resting-place to die,
And as he hastened on, prepared to leave
His mission; Death's keen scythe he downward threw,
And, flashing in hell's fires, its piercing edge
Was ever o'er the suffering sinners' heads,
Menacing vengeance yet protracting dread;
The glass, that numbered hours, now poured its sands
By centuries and 'mid a meteor's glare
Above, he hung it awfully distinct
To eyes that wept their owners' bosom blood,
And, when they asked the close of their fierce pain,
A vivid flame flashed upward and displayed
Eternity!—Then Time fell down and died.
But as he fell, amid the awful scenes
Of horror and despair, I saw two forms
Beautiful celestially bend o'er the verge
Of billowy chaos with a look of woe
And agony, and then in fond embrace
Rise upward joyously; a deadly moan
Went through the universe as fleet they fled,
For they were Love and Innocence!