As he who sails aloof Upon the perilous Atlantic, vex'd By baffling gales, what time his gallant bark Or on the summit of some dark blue wave Storm-beaten rides, or plunges into the chasm From that tremendous altitude, and straight Lies in his trough becalm'd, as if the grave Had swallow'd her; nathless undaunted sets His fix'd regard upon the starry vault, And notes the hour, and frequent calculates Distance and bearings, and with skill corrects The errors of his course. So darkling steer'd Aetius, through the shoals and fearful blasts Of his tempestuous time, but never found That anchorage, secure from every change Of fitful gales, that haven, which the just Alone inherit; for the sons of earth, Who, vex'd with vain disquietude, pursue Ambition's fatuous light, through miry pools That yawn for their destruction, stray foredoom'd Amid delusive shadows to their end. That certain hope, which shineth evermore A beacon to the righteous, over them Its peaceful radiance never shall diffuse; And bitterness shall be the bread they chew, While striving to devour the portion snatch'd By strong injustice from their fellow men, A baneful meal; and their satiety Shall be a curse, more fatal than the void Of meager famine, an unwholesome weight, That haply shall bring dreams beyond the grave To the charged soul, and phantoms of the things Which have been on this earth, and which shall be Hereafter, when the trumpet wakes the dead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EARTH-CHILD IN THE GRASS by KATHERINE MANSFIELD CAMPUS SONNET: BEFORE AN EXAMINATION by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET SONG:SO WHY DOES THIS DEAD CARNATION by HAYDEN CARRUTH A DIM DOORWAY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CELSUS AT HADRIAN'S VILLA by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |