Space-sweeping soul, what sad refrain Concludes thy musings once again?
"Oh, for the time when I shall sleep Without identity.
And never care how rain may steep, Or snow may cover me!
No promised heaven, these wild desires Could all, or half fulfil;No threatened hell, with quenchless fires, Subdue this quenchless will!"
"So said I, and still say the same;Still, to my death, will say--
Three gods, within this little frame, Are warring night; and day;Heaven could not hold them all, and yet They all are held in me;And must be mine till I forget My present entity!
Oh, for the time, when in my breast Their struggles will be o'er!
Oh, for the day, when I shall rest, And never suffer more!"
"I saw a spirit, standing, man, Where thou dost stand--an hour ago, And round his feet three rivers ran, Of equal depth, and equal flow--
A golden stream--and one like blood;And one like sapphire seemed to be;But, where they joined their triple flood It tumbled in an inky sea The spirit sent his dazzling gaze Down through that ocean's gloomy night;Then, kindling all, with sudden blaze, The glad deep sparkled wide and bright--
White as the sun, far, far more fair Than its divided sources were!"
"And even for that spirit, seer, I've watched and sought my life-time long;Sought him in heaven, hell, earth, and air, An endless search, and always wrong.
Had I but seen his glorious eye ONCE light the clouds that wilder me;I ne'er had raised this coward cry To cease to think, and cease to be;I ne'er had called oblivion blest, Nor stretching eager hands to death, Implored to change for senseless rest This sentient soul, this living breath--
Oh, let me die--that power and will Their cruel strife may close;And conquered good, and conquering ill Be lost in one repose!"
REMEMBRANCE.
Cold in the earth--and the deep snow piled above thee, Far, far, removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee, Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?