 | Drifted in |  |
(TO THE MOUND-BUILDERS.)
Long have I dreamed o'er your clay-covered dwellings—
Spectres of yore:
Heroes of histories vanished, whose telling,
E'en, is no more!
Oft will the grave, with its monuments singing
Praise, e'en through silence be heard:
Yours, to the depths of Oblivion clinging,
Scorns us, and deigns not a word.
Not through the long fickle centuries faring,
Blest and unblest,
Even the names you were weary of wearing,
Now are at rest.
Spectres of yore:
Heroes of histories vanished, whose telling,
E'en, is no more!
Oft will the grave, with its monuments singing
Praise, e'en through silence be heard:
Yours, to the depths of Oblivion clinging,
Scorns us, and deigns not a word.
Not through the long fickle centuries faring,
Blest and unblest,
Even the names you were weary of wearing,
Now are at rest.
Yet do you tell me, though mayhap unwilling,
Deeds you have done:
You had the clouds of the earth, and the thrilling
Fire of the sun;
You had the keeping of Love's kingly treasure,
Chained with the mortgage of doubt and of care;
You had of Hate's mingled torture and pleasure,
Heavens full of hope, and the hells of despair.
Forests now dead heard the songs of your dancing,
In the gay hour,
Then o'er the plains blood-stained legions advancing,
Crushed every flower.
Deeds you have done:
You had the clouds of the earth, and the thrilling
Fire of the sun;
You had the keeping of Love's kingly treasure,
Chained with the mortgage of doubt and of care;
You had of Hate's mingled torture and pleasure,
100
Forests now dead heard the songs of your dancing,
In the gay hour,
Then o'er the plains blood-stained legions advancing,
Crushed every flower.
When our Today, with its shout and its gleaming,
Lies cold and dead,
Still will the child of the future be dreaming
Round your grim bed.
Here the ambitious, whatever his choosing
Proudly immortal to be,
Can, by this lack of a record perusing,
Learn his bleak future from thee.
Nought born of earth but on earth has to perish,
New life to give;
Only the soul Heav'n finds worthy to cherish
Has long to live.
Lies cold and dead,
Still will the child of the future be dreaming
Round your grim bed.
Here the ambitious, whatever his choosing
Proudly immortal to be,
Can, by this lack of a record perusing,
Learn his bleak future from thee.
Nought born of earth but on earth has to perish,
New life to give;
Only the soul Heav'n finds worthy to cherish
Has long to live.
| Drifted in | |