| |
| O KEEPER of the Sacred Key, | |
| And the Great Seal of Destiny, | |
| Whose eye is the blue canopy, | |
| Look down upon the warring world, and tell us what the end will be. | |
| |
| “Lo, through the wintry atmosphere, | 5 |
| On the white bosom of the sphere, | |
| A cluster of five lakes appear; | |
| And all the land looks like a couch, or warrior’s shield, or sheeted bier. | |
| |
| “And on that vast and hollow field, | |
| With both lips closed and both eyes sealed, | 10 |
| A mighty Figure is revealed,— | |
| Stretched at full length, and stiff and stark, as in the hollow of a shield. | |
| |
| “The winds have tied the drifted snow | |
| Around the face and chin; and, lo! | |
| The sceptred Giants come and go, | 15 |
| And shake their shadowy crowns and say: | |
| ‘We always feared it would be so!’ | |
| |
| “She came of an heroic race: | |
| A giant’s strength, a maiden’s grace, | |
| Like two in one seem to embrace, | 20 |
| And match, and blend, and thorough-blend, in her colossal form and face. | |
| |
| “Where can her dazzling falchion be? | |
| One hand is fallen in the sea; | |
| The Gulf-Stream drifts it far and free; | |
| And in that hand her shining brand gleams from the depths resplendently. | 25 |
| |
| “And by the other, in its rest, | |
| The starry banner of the West | |
| Is clasped forever to her breast; | |
| And of her silver helmet, lo, a soaring eagle is the crest. | |
| |
| “And on her brow, a softened light, | 30 |
| As of a star concealed from sight | |
| By some thin veil of fleecy white,— | |
| Or of the rising moon behind the rainy vapors of the night. | |
| |
| “The Sisterhood that was so sweet, | |
| The Starry System sphered complete, | 35 |
| Which the mazed Orient used to greet, | |
| The Four and Thirty fallen Stars glimmer and glitter at her feet. | |
| |
| “And over her,—and over all, | |
| For panoply and coronal,— | |
| The mighty Immemorial, | 40 |
| And everlasting Canopy and starry Arch and Shield of All.” | |
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