| I STOOD by the open casement | |
| And looked upon the night, | |
| And saw the westward-going stars | |
| Pass slowly out of sight. | |
| |
| Slowly the bright procession | 5 |
| Went down the gleaming arch, | |
| And my soul discerned the music | |
| Of their long triumphal march; | |
| |
| Till the great celestial army, | |
| Stretching far beyond the poles, | 10 |
| Became the eternal symbol | |
| Of the mighty march of souls. | |
| |
| Onward, forever onward, | |
| Red Mars led down his clan; | |
| And the Moon, like a mailèd maiden, | 15 |
| Was riding in the van. | |
| |
| And some were bright in beauty, | |
| And some were faint and small, | |
| But these might be in their great height | |
| The noblest of them all. | 20 |
| |
| Downward, forever downward, | |
| Behind Earth's dusky shore | |
| They passed into the unknown night, | |
| They passed and were no more. | |
| |
| No more! Oh, say not so! | 25 |
| And downward is not just; | |
| For the sight is weak and the sense is dim | |
| That looks through heated dust. | |
| |
| The stars and the mailèd moon, | |
| Though they seem to fall and die, | 30 |
| Still sweep with their embattled lines | |
| An endless reach of sky. | |
| |
| And though the hills of Death | |
| May hide the bright array, | |
| The marshalled brotherhood of souls | 35 |
| Still keeps its upward way. | |
| |
| Upward, forever upward, | |
| I see their march sublime, | |
| And hear the glorious music | |
| Of the conquerors of Time. | 40 |
| |
| And long let me remember, | |
| That the palest, fainting one | |
| May to diviner vision be | |
| A bright and blazing sun. | |
