University of Virginia Library

WHAT THE DEAD MAN SAW.

I am lying dead, deep down beneath the ground,
Choked out from hope of loving, or of living,
Hope of achieving aught, receiving, giving,
Cold, motionless, alone, in graveclothes bound,
All voiceless in a realm without a sound,
A flash of memory at times reminding
My soul with bitterness, black, biting, blinding,
Of joys that once alive on earth I found;
I sometimes seem to see the sky as clearly
As ever, a happy child, I used to do,
The birds and flies and flowers I loved so dearly,
The broad green seas of grass, the arch of blue,
The dream, departing, grazes me so nearly
'Tis hard to believe it baseless, bald, untrue;
I find that I can still rejoice a little,
Can still delight me in the life of others,
Warm souls upon the earth, my moving brothers,
In love the bubble, beautiful but brittle,
Can still take pleasure in the thought that ever
Life streameth onward, hurrying, loitering never,
Its surface bearing fair white lily kisses,
And sound of sighs and songs, and woes and blisses,
Fierce flame of battle, failure, strong endeavour,
Meetings that madden, partings souls that sever,
Glimpses of heaven, weeping, wild embraces,
Horrors of hell beneath, pale praying faces,
And gleams of light from distant dazzling places,
Glories that beckon onward, rainbow traces,
Free heights of ether, snowy mountainous spaces,
And Hope with wings, and eyes that smile for ever;
The stream flows on though I have ceased to be,
Flows over, under, through the conscious me,
Expanded, widened out upon the tide,
Free from encumbrance, fetterless, I ride,
And float towards the universal sea,
I feel the life of leaves, the grasses growing,
One with the sower, in the seed he's sowing,
Fulfilled with joy of harvest and of mowing,
Partaker of the May-fly's dance of glee,
I sip the honey with the humble bee,
An antelope, I leap along the sands,
And, like a lion, pace the lonely strands,
In death I've found at last to life the key,
One mighty blood pulse beats throughout the whole,
One Central Heart, one Universal Soul,
One Vital Force of all the lives that be;
Along the polished graven groove of space
In harmony the planets run their race,
And tides of suns and starry clusters roll,
The power that runs the race we call Free Force,
Limitless fields of ether form the course,
Each sun and moon a bounding burning horse
Moving melodiously beneath control,
A music sounds across from pole to pole,
Beating a burthen out of sultry sands,
Ringing the changes on the frozen lands,
Dissolving, forming, joining hands in hands,
Bringing the severed sons of men together,
The extreme southern shores of rainless weather,
The regions where the glittering iceberg stands,
In one soft silken Universal Tether
To link the scattered skeins of separate nations,
Their planet homes, their lands, their several stations,
Convolving into one triumphant whole,
As seethes the rich red wine within the bowl,
And foaming, flashing, slowly settles down;
The end is worthy, such an end shall crown
The writhing long-drawn serpent of the ages,
The many-volumed roll of history's pages,
Smoothing right out at last creation's frown!

II.