XIV. "ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE PREACHER.” AME, wisdom, love, and power were mine, And health and youth possess'd me; My goblets blush'd from every vine I strive to number o'er what days There rose no day, there roll'd no hour And not a trapping deck'd my power The serpent of the field, by art And spells, is won from harming; XV. WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS HEN coldness wraps this suffering clay, W Ah! whither strays the immortal mind? It cannot die, it cannot stay, But leaves its darken'd dust behind. Then, unembodied, doth it trace By steps each planet's heavenly way? Eternal, boundless, undecay'd, A thought unseen, but seeing all, In one broad glance the soul beholds, Before Creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back: Above or Love, Hope, Hate or Fear, Away, away, without a wing, O'er all, through all, its thought shall fly; A nameless and eternal thing, Forgetting what it was to die. XVI. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. T HE King was on his throne, The Satraps throng'd the hall; A thousand bright lamps shone O'er that high festival. A thousand cups of gold, In Judah deem'd divineJehovah's vessels hold The godless Heathen's wine. In that same hour and hall, A solitary hand Along the letters ran, And traced them like a wand. The monarch saw, and shook, Which mar our royal mirth." |