My Lyrical Life Poems Old and New. By Gerald Massey |
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THE SECOND EMPIRE. |
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 | My Lyrical Life |  |
THE SECOND EMPIRE.
It had not life enough to die at last,
Nor weight enough to fall; it simply passed:
A Shadow great calamity had cast.
Nor weight enough to fall; it simply passed:
A Shadow great calamity had cast.
Gone, like a dance of gnats from sunset streams!
We saw it, with these eyes; and now it seems
Dim as a fragment of forgotten dreams.
We saw it, with these eyes; and now it seems
Dim as a fragment of forgotten dreams.
A mist of blood, it rose up in the night;
A mist of glamour blurred the common light;
A mist of lies, it vanishes from sight.
A mist of glamour blurred the common light;
A mist of lies, it vanishes from sight.
For Eighteen years we watched where'er life stirred;
Waited and listened, but we never heard
God speak. It went without a warning word!
Waited and listened, but we never heard
God speak. It went without a warning word!
One flash of Heaven; and all the Pageantry
Of Cloudland crumbles; all the Ephemeræ flee
From the still presence of Eternity!
Of Cloudland crumbles; all the Ephemeræ flee
From the still presence of Eternity!
One ray of risen Liberty hath shone,
And like a name writ in the Sighs breathed on
A Prison Window-pane, the Empire's gone.
And like a name writ in the Sighs breathed on
A Prison Window-pane, the Empire's gone.
| My Lyrical Life | |