Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ODE OF CHANGE, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ODE OF CHANGE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have come to the time of the failing of breath
Last Line: "I have been; thou hast done all things well; I am glad; I give thanks; I rejoice!"
Subject(s): Change


I HAVE come to the time of the failing of breath;
I have reached the cold threshold of Death!

Death! there is not any Death; only infinite change,
Only a place of life which is novel and strange.
Change! there is naught but change and renewal of strife,
Which make up the infinite changes we sum up in life.
Life! what is life, that it ceases with ceasing of breath?
Death! what were Life without change, but an infinite Death?

As I lie on my bed, and the sun, like a furnace of fire,
Burns amid the old pines in the west, ere the last ray expire,
Can I dream he will rise no more, but a fathomless night
Shall brood o'er Creation for ever, and shut out the light?
It is done, this Day of our Life; but another shall rise,
Day for ever following Day, in the infinite skies,
Day following Day for ever!

Day following day, with the starlit darkness between;
Or, maybe in a world where Dawn comes, ere our sunset has been;
Day following Day for ever!

For ever! though who shall tell in what seeming or where?
In what far-off secret space of God's limitless air?
It matters nothing at all what we are or where set,
If a spark of the Infinite Light can shine on us yet.
Life following Life for ever!

Life following Life for ever! for what if the Sun
Grew chilled, and the Universe cold, and the orbits undone,
And all the great globes should fall back into chaos once more;
They would wake at a glance of the Light, as they wakened before.
There is no Death for ever!

Cease! but how should we cease while God's light shall remain?
He that has lighted Life's flame shall light it again!
What if He take back for a while, as the Sun from the Sea,
Some spark of the radiance divine that bade all things to be?
We rest in Him, we are sunk, we are folded in Him, but we are;
As the star which draws near to the Sun is obscured, but is still a star.
There is only Change for ever!

Shall I fear that I shall be changed and no more shall be I? --
I who know not what 'tis that I am, to live or to die?
Nay, while God is, I too must be, else too weak were His hand;
The created is part of His essence, -- how else could the Maker stand?
There is no Death for ever!

Take me, oh infinite Cause, and cleanse me of wrong!
Take me, raise me to higher Being through centuries long!
Cleanse me, by pain, if need be, through aeons of days!
Take me and purge me, still I will answer with praise --
There is no Death for ever!

Shall I mourn for those who are not Nay, while love and regret
Still linger within our souls, they live with us yet.
If we love, then the souls that we love, they exist and they are,
As memory which makes us ourselves, brings precious things from far.
Love lives and is for ever!

We are part of an Infinite Scheme,
All we that are;
Man the high crest and crown of things that be,
The fiery-hearted earth, the cold unfathomed sea,
The central sun, the intermittent star.
Things great and small,
We are but parts of the Eternal All;
We live not in a barren, baseless dream;
No endless, ineffectual chain
Of chance successions launched in vain;
But every beat of Time,
Each sun that shines or fails to shine,
Each animate life that comes to throb or cease,
Each life of herb or tree
Which blooms and fruits and then forgets to be,
Each change of strife and peace,
Each soaring thought sublime,
Each deed of wrong and blood,
Each impulse towards an unattained good, --
All with a sure, unfaltering working tend
To one Ineffable, Beatific End.
Oh hidden Scheme, perfect Thyself, and take
Our petty lives, and mould them as Thou wilt!

All things that are, are only for Thy sake,
And not to obey Thee is our only guilt!
Perfect Thyself, and be fulfilled, oh great
Unfathomable Will, who art our Life and Fate!

There is hope, but nothing of fear,
Nought but a patient mind,
For him who waits with conscience clear
And soul resigned
Whate'er the mystic coming change
Shall bring of new and strange.
He looks back once upon the fields of life,
The good and evil locked in strife,
The happy and the unhappy days,
The Right we always love, the oft-triumphant Wrong;
And all his Being to a secret song
Sings with a mighty and unfaltering voice --
"I have been; Thou hast done all things well; I am glad; I give thanks; I rejoice!"





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