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From “The Pleasures of Hope” 1
UNFADING Hope! when life’s last embers burn, | |
| When soul to soul, and dust to dust return! | |
| Heaven to thy charge resigns the awful hour! | |
| O, then thy kingdom comes! Immortal Power! | |
| What though each spark of earth-born rapture fly | 5 |
| The quivering lip, pale cheek, and closing eye! | |
| Bright to the soul thy seraph hands convey | |
| The morning dream of life’s eternal day,— | |
| Then, then, the triumph and the trance begin, | |
| And all the phœnix spirit burns within! * * * * * | 10 |
| Daughter of Faith, awake, arise, illume | |
| The dread unknown, the chaos of the tomb; | |
| Melt, and dispel, ye spectre-doubts, that roll | |
| Cimmerian darkness o’er the parting soul! | |
| Fly, like the moon-eyed herald of Dismay, | 15 |
| Chased on his night-steed by the star of day! | |
| The strife is o’er,—the pangs of Nature close, | |
| And life’s last rapture triumphs o’er her woes. | |
| Hark! as the spirit eyes, with eagle gaze, | |
| The noon of Heaven undazzled by the blaze, | 20 |
| On heavenly winds that waft her to the sky, | |
| Float the sweet tones of star-born melody; | |
| Wild as that hallowed anthem sent to hail | |
| Bethlehem’s shepherds in the lonely vale, | |
| When Jordan hushed his waves, and midnight still | 25 |
| Watched on the holy towers of Zion hill! * * * * * | |
| Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime | |
| Pealed their first notes to sound the march of Time, | |
| Thy joyous youth began,—but not to fade. | |
| When all the sister planets have decayed; | 30 |
| When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow, | |
| And Heaven’s last thunder shakes the world below; | |
| Thou, undismayed, shalt o’er the ruins smile, | |
| And light thy torch at Nature’s funeral pile. | |
