SAID Earth in the darkness wailing As morningward she turned, 'Alas for the golden summers Along my peaks that burned! And alas for the beautiful maidens Who danced on the flowery leas, And my sons so bold in camp and mart And out on the stormy seas; Like the rose and the palm they faded And fell by a merciless doom — Alas for the beauty and valor, While I roll on, a tomb! 'No cliff of the loftiest mountains, No deepest cave of the sea, But is mingled of dust that once had life And has gone afar from me: The æons were brief to tell my grief, The wide sky has not room, My winds chant dirges evermore While I roll on, a tomb! 'Soon will the warm May twilights Be thrilling with lovers' words; I shall hear the laughter of children, The songs of nesting birds; But I know the shadow will follow, And my heart is lost in gloom As I think of the infinite myriads dead, While I roll on, their tomb!' Morning floods the sky with splendor; Lo! an angel in the sun Crying, @3'Life is lord forever! Life and death, O Earth, are one! As the tides rejoice the ocean, summers wake or still the sod, So Life ebbs and flows forever, pulsing with the heart of God!'@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHRISMUS IS A-COMIN' by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE VIRGIN'S SLUMBER SONG by JOSEPH FRANCIS CARLIN MACDONNELL MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 5 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI LINES ON THE COTTAGE AT THE FOOT OF BOX HILL, SURREY by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 19. THE SOUTHERN PASSION by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |