Classic Poem

Long up and down I paced the House of Pain:
On their white thrones reclined the dwellers there
In regal reticence and superb despair,
Mained, marred, half blotted out, as they had lain,
For expiation, under the disdain
Of Life's great, grinding car; repulsive, fair,
Old, young, loud, gentle, now alike did bear
That kingly quiet whereto those attain
Whom Life has conquered, and whom Death has smitten
With the universal Light. Their erstwhile fret
Forgotten entire beneath the eternal sun,
They lay and read in air the old laws written
Of silence, and their souls were outward set
Where young and old and fair and foul are one.