Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/Life, Death, and Eternity

Life, Death, and Eternity.

A shadow moving by one's side, That would a substance seem—That is, yet is not,—though descried,— Like skies beneath the stream;A tree that's ever in the bloom, Whose fruit is ever ripe;A wish for joys that never come, Such are the hopes of life.

A dark, inevitable night, A blank that will remain;A waiting for the morning light, When waiting is in vain;A gulf where pathway never led To show the depth beneath;A thing we know not, yet we dread: That dreaded thing is death.

The vaulted void of purple sky That everywhere extends,That stretches from the dazzled eye, In space that never ends;A morning whose uprisen sun No setting e'er shall see;A day that comes without a noon: Such is eternity.