Classic Poem

O, the sorrow and the splendour
Of that woe-worn Outcast Angel!
Reverently I bent before him,
Blessing him, the Prince of Pity;

Round him, as he look'd to Heaven,
Clung a cloud of golden music—
Fair he seem'd as when, ere fallen,
Singing on the morning star!

‘Thus,’ he said, ‘throughout the ages,
O'er the world my feet have wander'd,
Watching in eternal pity
Endless harvest-fields of Death!

‘One by one the tribes and races
To the silent grave have waver'd,—
Never have I seen a sleeper
Slip his shroud, to rise again!

‘Dead they lie, the strong, the gentle,
Dead alike, the good and evil,—
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,
All is o'er—they rest at last!

‘All the tears of all the martyrs
Fall'n in vain for Man's redemption!
All the souls of all the singers
Dumb for ever in the grave!

‘Where are they whose busy fingers
Wove the silks of Tyre and Sidon?
Where are they who in the desert
Raised the mighty Pyramids?

‘Ants upon an ant-heap, insects
Of the crumbling cells of coral,
Coming ever, ever going,
Race on race has lived and died.

‘Ev'n as Babylon departed,
So shall yonder greater City;
Like the Assyrian, like the Roman,
Celt and Briton shall depart!

‘Yea, the Cities and the Peoples
One by one have come and vanish'd:
Broken, on the sandy desert,
Lies the Bull of Nineveh!

‘Ev'n as beauteous reefs of coral
Rising bright and many-colour'd
In the midst of the great waters,
Wondrous Nations have arisen;

‘First the insects that upbuilt them
Labour'd busily, and dying
Left the reef of their creation
Crumbling wearily away;

‘O'er the reef the salt ooze gathers,
Mud and sand are heapt upon it,
Then the trees and flowers and grasses
Bury it for evermore!

‘Shall I bend in adoration
To the Lord of these delusions?
Nay, I stand erect, and scorn Him,—
Pulseless, null Omnipotence!

‘Deaf to all the wails and weeping,
Blind to all the woes of Being,
Plunging daily into darkness
All the dreams of all the Christs!’