FALSE Time, so fleet, so fugitive! Why promise more than thou can'st give? Eternity, in Thee we live! And many an hour The heart, attuned and sensitive, Thrills to Thy Power. When on some morn elect and rare, In radiant vision of mid air A throng of graces fresh and fair, New risen, wait The bright-faced sun, whose flaming hair Streams thro' dawn's gate; Then faery-like dance in and rear Strange figures foreign to our sphere, Whose magic glow would disappear At time's decree, But that rapt hearts still view all clear That hails from Thee -- When thro' some consecrated days The while incarnate Angels blaze, Divine enchantment brooding stays: So pure the spell, What heaven, what earth while it delays No heart can tell -- In some rare moment, free from shock Of earthly ill, when taking stock Of all Time's treasure, Love can mock Its best and soar Sheer to Thy Portals, and unlock Immortal store -- In fevered parley with false lust Which woos with wealth that can but rust, When Conscience beckons from Time's dust To Joys that live, And Truth pronounces Duty's "must" Imperative. And chiefest in the hour of gloom, Mid withered leaf and fading bloom; When woe for weal leaves scanty room, Thy glory lends A Vision fair beyond that tomb Where Time's all ends. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE IN TWILIGHT by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET WHAT I'VE BELIEVED IN by JAMES GALVIN IN LOVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DOMESDAY BOOK: LILLI ALM by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ELIZABETH CHILDERS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: OAKS TUTT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE RUSSIAN ARMY GOES INTO BAKU by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER THE STORY OF THE ASHES AND THE FLAME by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON |