SWEETER than softest music Of earth or sea or sky Is the stifled gasp of dying To him that may not die; -- To him that, wan and deathless, Must watch, dumb-souled with pain, The nations rise and crumble Till Christ shall come again. The marble courts of Princes My casque-plumes, sweeping low, Brushed in their deep obeisance A thousand years ago. Mine was the robe of purple, That speaks a king's right hand, And when the war-gong thundered Mine was the chief command. Where axe on helm was crashing I led, and prayed to die, Bowed to the glittering broadsword; The broadsword passed me by. Within a sun-scorched city, Lost in the desert sand, Crazed with the rack of famine, Dank from the Scourge's hand, I crawled amid the stricken And, palsied arm on high, Prayed for the Scourge to take me, But, lo, it passed me by. Far in a clanging workshop -- The West's full-furnaced Hell -- Where great earth-shaking hammers Obedient rose and fell, Amid the soot and turmoil, Choked by the hissing air, Toiling with molten rivers I braved the white-hot glare. Reckless of mighty engines, And chains that burst and fly, I prayed for them to whelm me, But, lo, they passed me by. And so, throughout the aeons That roll unceasingly, Quelled by the hand of heaven I bow to its decree. Toiling where toil is granted, Wrapped in a leaden calm, Broken of soul and weary, I drift from pole to palm, Straining with heavy eyelids To catch the fire unfurled That tokens in its gleaming The sunset of the World. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TRANSLATION by MARK VAN DOREN RIVALRY IN LOVE by WILLIAM WALSH (1663-1707) A FRESHET by ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM THE TRUE LOVER by SIMON BOUGOING THE SMACK RACE by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD THE CRICKET IN THE PATH by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR SONGS OF THE SEA CHILDREN: 21 by BLISS CARMAN |