 | English Roses |  |
THE SIBYL.
The light of long-past ages
Lay upon her calm eyes,
Which looked the passion pages
Of dreadful mysteries;
With all the hopes and fears
Of all the yearning years,
In dead eternities.
Lay upon her calm eyes,
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Of dreadful mysteries;
With all the hopes and fears
Of all the yearning years,
In dead eternities.
With dim and distant waking,
The yet undreamed-of morn
Seemed in her vision breaking,
Beyond the gulfs forlorn;
The future like a rose
White-bosomed did unclose,
The bliss of man unborn.
The yet undreamed-of morn
Seemed in her vision breaking,
Beyond the gulfs forlorn;
The future like a rose
White-bosomed did unclose,
The bliss of man unborn.
By nothing stirred or stricken
She saw the waves of time,
Like clouds of sunset sicken
From their pure golden prime;
Till every hue and ray
Made music, in the day
Of the one perfect chime.
She saw the waves of time,
Like clouds of sunset sicken
From their pure golden prime;
Till every hue and ray
Made music, in the day
Of the one perfect chime.
Above all grief and gladness
She watched the pageants pass,
The lights of mirth or madness,
Like shadows on the grass;
And her great tranquil eyes
Reflected earth and skies,
As in some heavenly glass.
She watched the pageants pass,
The lights of mirth or madness,
Like shadows on the grass;
And her great tranquil eyes
Reflected earth and skies,
As in some heavenly glass.
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