I. It was a vision of the night, Ten years ago- A vision of dim FUNERALS, that passed, In troubled sleep, before my sight, With dirges and deep wails of woe, That never died upon the blast! II. Swiftly not as with march that marks The earthly hearse, Each FUNERAL swept onward to its goa But, oh! no horror overdarks The stanzas of my gloomsome verse, Like that which then weighed down my soul! III. It was as though my life were gone With what I saw! Here were the FUNERALS of my thoughts as well! The dead and I at last were one! An ecstacy of chilling awe Mastered my spirit as a spell! IV . On, on, still on and on they swept, Silently, save When the long FUNERAL chaunt rose up to heaven, Or some wild mourner shrieked and wept; Earth had become one groanful grave- The isles and lands were left bereaven! V. And on each hearse there sat enthroned A skeleton! The FUNERALS showed him by a lurid gleam, And round each stood, as ' twere enzoned, Others, the like, so many a one They might have peopled worlds of dream! VI. And towards the west at first they marched, Then towards the south, Those endless FUNERALS , till the sky o'erhead, As one vast pall, seemed overarched With blackness, and methought the mouth Of Hades had cast up its dead! VII. And one night passed , and there was day So dreamt I there! The FUNERALS, then, had been but phantoms all- How cheats imagination's play! Give her illusions, thou, no care, Oh, man! but harken reason's call! VIII. But night fell dark on earth once more, And many a night, And still the FUNERALS knew nor pause nor change; And ever nightly, as before, I again felt dead to mark a sight, So terrible, so dread, so strange! IX. What was this mystery? Years would seem To have rolled away, Before those FUNERALS halted on their path Were they but mockeries of a dream? Or did the vision darkly say, That here were signs of looming wrath? X. I know not! but within the soul I know there lives A deep, a marvellous, a prophetic power, Far beyond even its own control- And why? Perchance, because it gives Dread witness of a JUDGMENT HOUR! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IMPROMPTU ON CHARLES II (2) by JOHN WILMOT A MARLOW MADRIGAL by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY AUTUMN SOLILOQUY by ELSIE DINWIDDIE BARTLETT SONNET: LOVE'S HEIGHT by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON OLIVER'S ADVICE by WILLIAM BLACKER REUNION IN WAR by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE SONG OF THE ELEMENTS by MARY ANN BROWNE TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. I HEARD THE VOICE OF THE WOODS by EDWARD CARPENTER |