Hymns and Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

O world, which evermore
As in a swollen river's turbid tide
Dost on and onward roll,
How long, how long
Shalt thou yet flow?
How long the sons of Eve
Into Hell's dismal ocean shalt thou sweep,
An unresisting throng?
Oh stream, augmenting ever by our loss!
Oh stream, whose surges toss
So high, scarce they escape who climb the Cross!

As one who, on a rock
That o'er the rising Danube looks afar,
Planting his steady foot,
Beneath him views the broad uproarious flood
Resistless whirling its tumultuous prey;
So to the table-land

406

Of this calm solitude retired awhile,
I, raised above myself,
Seem from its sylvan height
Thee to behold, O world, far down below;
With all thy pomps and specious vanities,
In eddies borne along without an end,
An evanescent scene.

Cities in whirlpools sweeping;
Unnumber'd armies from all nations pour'd;
Wharfs piled with merchandise;
Kings' palaces in marble terraced high;
Fountains and glittering domes;
Castles and forts
Bristling with cannons' teeth;
Huge heaps of gold,
Prisons and theatres, and crowds of men;—
All these and many more,
Life's phantom masquerade,
Beneath my gaze in mazy circles speed.

See in procession long
The Pagan world go by,
Baal and Astaroth and Remmon's car,
With music wild, and shouts of drunken joy;
Assyria, Media, Persia, Babylon,
Egypt, and ancient Thebes.

Ah me, what hideous rites!
What fearful orgies drench'd in human blood,
Man's blood in hellish sacrifice outpour'd!
Such things I saw, and seeing, knew the world
For an apostate from its Maker's creed,
Though stamp'd on its own heart,
And writ on nature's brow.

407

Anon came whirling by old Greece and Rome,
With all their arts sublime;
Still far from Thee, O Lord.
Beauty their idol; her in countless forms
Their pleasure to adore;
Spurning her Author and first Origin;
Sensual their deeds, with a false glory crown'd.
Long was the train
That follow'd in their wake. Then seem'd the globe
To spin upon its axis as I gazed;
While land and sea together blent in one
Like a broad ribbon show'd. So quickly time
Coursed on its way. Anon 'twas darkness all;
Which, presently dispersing, usher'd in
The light of modern days,—
The light of Intellect, false reason's ray!
Upward from earth it came,
Not downwards from on high:
And lo, beneath its pale and haggard beam
Sweeps roisterous along
A democratic rout;
Uproar and anarchy set loose from chains.
Oh woe was me, what blasphemies I mark'd!
Science run mad;
Mammon in triumph borne;
And nature's law set up in place of God.
Methought the end was near;
That surely Antichrist must now appear.

Vanish'd the rabble rout in distance far,
Borne on thy stream, O world;
And now before me swam all pleasant things,—
Mansions and fragrant groves;
Arcadian lawns
With groups of dancers fill'd;
Banquets in halls of state;

408

Bright throngs of revellers, enchanting forms
Of youth and beauty, music's joyous bands,
All sweets of this vain world,
All pleasures, glories, riches, dignities.
And ever as I gazed, within me rose
A yearning strange and most insatiable,
A yearning and an emptiness profound,
Which nought of all I there beheld could fill.
‘O foolish heart,’ I thought, ‘that ever once
You could have dreamt to find in these your rest!
All in a restless scene;
All amid phantom things
That come and go, and go and come again,
Fata Morgana of this fleeting world!
Poor shreds of time, while thou eternal art!
Adieu, adieu,
Illusive pageantry!
Adieu, adieu,
False fleeting airy show!
Speed on thy way, and with insidious smile
Thy wretched victims into ruin sweep;
But I, thy treacheries taught
By sad experience, spurn thee from my breast,
And thy allegiance evermore renounce,
Insensate, heartless, empty, perjured world!’
Such were the thoughts, O Solitude divine,
Which, as I sat upon thy mountain height
Beneath a cloister of umbrageous pine,
Upon me stole, what time before my sight
The mists of eve were passing in review,
Marshall'd far down the vale. Meanwhile the moon,
Pale-glistening with a solemn-tinted hue,
Above the forest lifted her fair head;
Faded away the sunset-dyes, and soon,
Dim spreading to the far horizon's verge

409

'Twas twilight all. Then in melodious swell,
Inviting requiems for the faithful dead,
Came floatingly, like some aerial dirge,
The peal of ancient monastery bell,
Rising and falling soft o'er distant flood and fell.