| |
| AND do our loves all perish with our frames? | |
| Do those that took their root and put forth buds, | |
| And their soft leaves unfolded in the warmth | |
| Of mutual hearts, grow up and live in beauty, | |
| Then fade and fall, like fair, unconscious flowers? | 5 |
| Are thoughts and passions that to the tongue give speech, | |
| And make it send forth winning harmonies,— | |
| That to the cheek do give its living glow, | |
| And vision in the eye the soul intense | |
| With that for which there is no utterance— | 10 |
| Are these the body’s accidents?—no more?— | |
| To live in it, and when that dies, go out | |
| Like the burnt taper’s flame? | |
| |
| O, listen, man! | |
| A voice within us speaks the startling word, | 15 |
| “Man, thou shalt never die!” Celestial voices | |
| Hymn it around our souls: according harps, | |
| By angel fingers touched when the mild stars | |
| Of morning sang together, sound forth still | |
| The song of our great immortality: | 20 |
| Thick clustering orbs, and this our fair domain, | |
| The tall, dark mountains, and the deep-toned seas, | |
| Join in this solemn, universal song. | |
| |
| O, listen ye, our spirits; drink it in | |
| From all the air! ’T is in the gentle moonlight; | 25 |
| ’T is floating in day’s setting glories; Night, | |
| Wrapt in her sable robe, with silent step | |
| Comes to our bed and breathes it in our ears: | |
| Night, and the dawn, bright day, and thoughtful eve, | |
| All time, all bounds, the limitless expanse, | 30 |
| As one vast mystic instrument, are touched | |
| By an unseen, living Hand; the conscious chords | |
| Quiver with joy in this great jubilee; | |
| The dying hear it, and as sounds of earth | |
| Grow dull and distant, wake their passing souls | 35 |
| To mingle in this heavenly harmony. | |
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