Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LIFE, by CALEB C. COLTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LIFE, by                    
First Line: How long shall man's imprison'd spirit groan
Last Line: Till doubt be lost in faith, and bliss secured in love.
Subject(s): Faith; Belief; Creed


How long shall man's imprison'd spirit groan
'Twixtjoy doubt of heaven and deep disgust of earth?
Where all worth knowing never can be known,
And all that can be known, alas! is nothing worth.

Untaught by saint, by cynic, or by sage,
And all the spoils of time that load their shelves,
We do not quit, but change our joys in age --
Joys framed to stifle thought, and lead us from ourselves.

The drug, the cord, the steel, the flood, the flame,
Turmoil of action, tedium of rest,
And lust of change, though for the worst, proclaim
How dull life's banquet is: how ill at ease the guest.

Known were the bill of fare before we taste,
Who would not spurn the banquet and the board --
Prefer th' eternal, but oblivious fast,
To life's frail-fretted thread, and death's suspended sword?

He that the topmost stone of Babel plann'd,
And he that braved the crater's boiling bed --
Did these a clearer, closer view command
Of heaven or hell, we ask, than the blind herd they led?

Or he that in Valdarno did prolong
The night her rich star-studded page to read --
Could he point out, midst all that brilliant throng,
His fixed and final home, from fleshy thraldom freed?

Minds that have scann'd creation's vast domain,
And secrets solved, till then to sages seal'd,
Whilst nature own'd their intellectual reign
Extinct, have nothing known or nothing have revealed.

Devouring grave! we might the less deplore
Th' extinguish'd lights that in thy darkness dwell,
Wouldst thou, from that last zodiac, one restore,
That might th' enigma solve, and doubt, man's tyrant, quell.

To live in darkness -- in despair to die --
Is this indeed the boon to mortals given?
Is there no port -- no rock of refuge nigh?
There is -- to those who fix their anchor-hope in heaven.
Turn then, O man! and cast all else aside:
Direct thy wandering thoughts to things above --
Low at the cross bow down -- in that confide,
Till doubt be lost in faith, and bliss secured in love.





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