The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
 | I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
 | VII. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE ETERNAL DEATH
|
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
338
THE ETERNAL DEATH
There is no death.—The death-deep awful gloom
We see and dread
Is not the real invincible fog-fume
Round the death-bed.
We see and dread
Is not the real invincible fog-fume
Round the death-bed.
There is no death, no darkness. All is light.
The deepest gloom
Is not the murk impenetrable night
Around the tomb.
The deepest gloom
Is not the murk impenetrable night
Around the tomb.
There is a deeper darkness than the dark
Where no stars beam:
A blackness where not one most faint star-spark
Can ever gleam.
Where no stars beam:
A blackness where not one most faint star-spark
Can ever gleam.
Wrong-doing is death, and this alone is death.
Death is sent here
That we may shiver at his ice-cold breath
And, shuddering, fear:
Death is sent here
That we may shiver at his ice-cold breath
And, shuddering, fear:
339
But fear not him, but his similitude—
The death more deep
Than ever mortal dreamed, the death more rude
Than deathlike sleep.
The death more deep
Than ever mortal dreamed, the death more rude
Than deathlike sleep.
The death we, and we only, can create;
The death we bring
By fraud and selfishness and wrath and hate
And misdoing.
The death we bring
By fraud and selfishness and wrath and hate
And misdoing.
This is the eternal death. The other death
Is just a change,
A sudden dreamlike passage underneath
A process strange.
Is just a change,
A sudden dreamlike passage underneath
A process strange.
And all that gives it horror, steeps in gloom
Earth's golden springs,
Is but a symbol of the eternal doom
Wrong-doing brings.
Earth's golden springs,
Is but a symbol of the eternal doom
Wrong-doing brings.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |