Classic Poem

XCI.

There are plenty of such, ere we come to the end
Where the actual things with the possible blend,
Other oceans of blue, a conceivable place; —
But it burdens my heart to imagine such space!

XCII.

Art thou sure, gentle Prince! there is no sorrow there,
No laws helping laws, no angelical care?
Art thou sure that obedience and duty intrude
Not at all in that viewless and far solitude?

XCIII.

For the lonely have duties, thyself mid the rest;
Like a wounded bird bleeding, the heart in thy breast
Sheds remorse on the air, and unkings thee when highest,
While duties undone mark the track where thou fliest.

XCIV.

Then away, in thy striving to get clear of strife!
There is nought youth loves more than an unwitnessed life.
Thou art gone, out of sight amid nameless worlds fleeing,
With the earth-string of conscience at work in thy being.

XCV.

When he came to the edge of the Milky Way world
Tracts of space lay before him in silence unfurled;
But he winged his way o'er the blue gulfs without check
To worlds far beyond, from which this looked a speck.

XCVI.

All the systems of suns that we see in the night
Dwindled down to a point, and then vanished from sight;
Then came fresh sets of worlds, and more inlets of space,
Old types disappearing, new forms in their place.

XCVII.

They rose up to view, like the tall masts of ships
Out at sea, when the sky-line of dark ocean dips;
Worlds round him, above, and beneath him, were seen,
Like woods in a mist with abysses between.

XCVIII.

Huge nebular regions, oases of light
Strewed thickly or thinly the void infinite;
Each of which in itself countless worlds can compress,
As thick as the sands of the wide wilderness; —

XCIX.

Long islands of worlds, far apart in the blue,
Now so near that a bridge of great suns joins the two;
Now an isthmus of orbs, now a wide continent
Where the numberless worlds in a bright patch are blent: —

C.

Worlds made, worlds preparing, worlds then and there making,
And inchoate spirals their white tresses shaking,
Worlds liquid, worlds solid, worlds vapor all over,
Worlds with or without atmospherical cover.