Classic Poem

Inscribed to Alex. McLaren, Esq., Rockside, Caledon, Peel County, Ontario

I S THIS world, with all its wonders,
Our whole life, a passing dream —
Shadows we, that unto shadows
In a death-like grapple seem?

What's this mighty maze of being?
Tell me, sages, if you can,
What is light, and what is darkness?
Tell me what is meant by man?

To illuminate our dungeon
All your striving is in vain;
Of themselves the sunbeams enter —
Of themselves pass out again.

We have all our times and seasons,
When the brooding spirit sees
Over ages, over aeons,
Into the eternities.

When the clouds which mar our vision
Melt like morning mists away,
When the past and unborn future
Meet upon the brink of day.

Tired, weary with conjecture,
On a stilly Sabbath night,
Clear as sunshine on my spirit,
A strange vision did alight.

I beheld a mighty ocean,
Thickly strewn with wrecks of time,
And the fleet of death discharging
Its sad cargo from each clime.

Of the dead within its bosom,
Kingdoms — continents — I saw,
Heap'd in regular confusion,
As a peasant piles his straw.

Here an earthquake-swallow'd city,
And a field of battle there;
Still the spectres eyed each other
With a horrid wolfish glare.

Long I gazed in silent horror,
Fix'd as if by death's decree;
For a myriad eyeless sockets
All were fasten'd upon me.

But the spirit spake within me,
Saying: " What hast thou to fear?
Not for empty, idle horror
Hast thou been admitted here.

" Mortal, cast thine eye far upward;
While thou breathest mortal breath,
Vain's thy hope of penetrating
The infinite depths of death. "

I beheld the cloud of being
Rise like vapor from the main;
Rolling o'er its awful bosom,
Sink into its depths again.

As it rose, that cloud was braided
With a lovely rainbow ray;
As it fell, the glory faded,
Blending in a solemn grey.

And the spirit spake within me,
Saying: " That which thou dost see
As shadow o'er death's gulf, is Time,
The rainbow of Eternity. "

Ages, with their weary burdens,
While I gazed, came rolling home;
Still another and another
Melted in the deep like foam.

Myriad human forms and faces
Look'd out on me through the gloom,
Individuals, empires, races,
On their journey to the tomb.

Now a face divinely human,
'Mid a group of children seen;
Now a blood-bespatter'd visage,
Horrid as a demon's dream.

Some, pursuing their own shadows,
Vanish'd quickly from my sight;
Others, grasping shining baubles,
Soon were swallow'd in the night.

Now the ringing laugh of gladness,
Now the short, sharp shriek of woe;
Joy and sorrow, mirth and madness,
Hurrying to the gulf below.

Yet, with an appalling sameness,
Aye the ages roll'd along;
Over each a voice kept singing
Poor humanity's sad song:

" An infinite dome, o'er a world of wonder,
An eye looking down on the poor dreamer under.
An ocean of wrecks, and beyond it our home;
Each wave as it breaks leaves us whiter with foam.

A marriage to-day, and a fun'ral to-morrow,
A short smile of joy, and a long sigh of sorrow.
A birth and a death, with a flutter between,
A lamp and a breath — tell me, what does it mean? "

Then arose, as if in answer,
From the great deep, voices three,
Pealing till they woke the awful
Echoes of eternity:

First Voice

Roll, roll, roll,
With thy burden of hopes and fears;
Toil, toil, toil,
In thy garden of blood and of tears.

On, on, on,
Tho' weary, way-worn and opprest;
Long, long, long
Is the Sabbath of peace and of rest.

Second Voice

Eternal, oh, eternal,
The spirit's range shall be;
Her heavy mantle she but casts
Upon the deep, deep sea.

Immortal, oh, immortal
The glad triumphant strain,
Soon as the spirit leaves the realm
Of sorrow, death, and pain!

Third Voice

Day dawns from the deepest shadow,
Flow'rs above corruption bloom;
Joy springs from the breast of sorrow,
Life immortal from the tomb.

Hope and fear are aye united,
Love and wretchedness are twain,
Hearts are by affection blighted,
Only in a world of sin.

And the spirit stirr'd within me,
As the voices died away;
Suddenly Time's rainbow vanish'd,
And the dead cried out, " 'Tis day. "

Morning in the east was dawning,
Earth-born sounds fell on mine ears,
And the awful vision vanish'd
In a flood of human tears.