Betwixt Two Seas :: :: University of Virginia Library

I look behind me as the shadows close,
And in the twilight, seem to see them stand—
Dead God-created people, and all those
That man, God's image, fashion'd with his hand;

Flesh of his flesh, the creatures of his brain—
Cursed with like passions, and yet spared his doom,
Who only lived in books, but still remain
Whilst their creators moulder in the tomb,

These mingle with the ghosts of men who knew
More ardent heart-beats, breathed intenser breath;
Yet, thro' so surely living, surely drew
Each moment nearer to a certain death.

And as I mark them lurking in the shade
Beside the highway that my feet have trod,
More life-like seem the forms man's mind hath made,
Than some pale phantoms from the hand of God!