MEN marvel at the works of man And with unstinted praises sing The greatness of some worldly thing Encompassed during one life's span; An empire built, kingdom born. And straightway men sound man's own horn. The human brain's a wondrous work, So chant the sages and the deans''" Those thought and labour go-betweens, Who ever life's deep mysteries shirk. A steel ribbed ship, an engine new''" Ah, mighty things strong man doth do! Man rears great piles of chiselled stone, And builds across the roaring streams, And tunnels mountains while he dreams Of sterner tasks to do alone. 'Tis I, he says, these things have wrought''" Through darkness to the heights I've fought. But comes a time when in his might The man of sceptre or of gold Is laid upon the marble cold, And soul within takes hurried flight. The wondrous man is but a clod As lowly as the earth he trod. Far in the realm of the unknown A little light has found its way A flicker in the newer day That hallows round a Godly throne; Once housed in the Eternal Land The light perceives the Master Hand. Well hast thou sailed: now die, To die is not to sleep. Still your true course you keep, O sailor soul, still sailing for the sky; And fifty fathom deep Your colours still shall fly. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VISION by GEORGE SANTAYANA MONADNOC by RALPH WALDO EMERSON NOTHING WILL DIE by ALFRED TENNYSON SELF-DECEPTION by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE WET WASH by MARIANA BACHMAN EPITAPH ON TWO YOUNG MEN NAMED LEITCH IN CROSSING THE RIVER SOUTHESK by JAMES BEATTIE |