Thou shadow of a shadow that departs

As the eye scans its bodiless outlines!

Thou golden-imaged Ruin and Despair!

When this earth cracks, like a poor blasted rock,

Before the burning of Almighty wrath,

Thy pallid spectre shall rise up to judge

The wretched victims that did trust in thee!

"O Heaven!" I said, "lead me to love and peace;

Love, that makes all things calm and beautiful,

And like the sun, e'en in its setting, flings

A glory o'er the cloudy peaks of Time.

Peace—that doth hush the throbbing voice of life,

Till through the stillness of the Poet's soul,

The echoes of Seraphic harmonies

Float like a spirit through the blue eterne."

I said—"I will sit neath the ancient woods,

And list unto the voices of the winds

Coming from far o'er spirit lands, and full

With stolen snatches of their utterance."

I said—"I will lay bare my soul unto the sun,

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