OH, wonder! oh, transport! Oh, ecstacy! that fills the purged sight With beams of golden light. And is this then the old familiar Earth, Or a new sphere gained by a second birth? As waking from my cloistered slumbers deep, I spurn the caves of sleep. Oh, wonder surpassing! A hundred suns for one, with constant light, Awake the ethereal air and banish Night; Sleep shrinks abashed, and Sleep's half-sister Death, Nor Time disturbs, nor Age, nor failing breath, While high ineffable rhythms roll around Harmonious waves of sound. Oh, glory! oh, rapture! For lo! the troubles and the toils are past, Done are the chequered years of Earth at last, The wandering footsteps on the unlighted way; Here the new Dawn ushers unfailing Day. Oh, calm effulgence from a cloudless sky! Spirit! is this to die? Oh, marvel! oh, glory! For see once more the lost are here again, Unchanged in aught, yet purged of earthly stain; And lo! the saints, the sages, a white throng Chanting with accents clear the Eternal song, Martyrs of Truth who bare in every age The World's despite and rage. Oh, vision enchanting! Here there is work for all; dutiful, blest, Sweeter and higher far than idle rest, Work that exalts the man above the brute; Laborious days that never fail of fruit; Forces that faint not; brains that never tire; Souls that aspire! aspire! Oh, wonder amazing! Lo! 'tis the self-same world, tho' seeming strange By some ineffable change, And such transforming radiance grown divine As never on the sad old Earth might shine. And hark, the long-hushed tones of homely love, And lo! the clear calm eyes which looked above. Yea, here or leagues beyond the farthest sun Nor life, nor love are done! |