the church of the gesù.
43
In contrite faith; and though that look
Read bare his heart as 'twere a book—
And if the record were of sin,
No flames of hell could light within,
'Such an undying agony
As the reproof of that mild eye—
Yet never from that Countenance
Swerved a hair's-breadth the mortal's glance,
As if Past time's eternity,
The Future's immortality,
Concentred and absorbed were
In th' Infinite Love revealed there!
Read bare his heart as 'twere a book—
And if the record were of sin,
No flames of hell could light within,
'Such an undying agony
As the reproof of that mild eye—
Yet never from that Countenance
Swerved a hair's-breadth the mortal's glance,
As if Past time's eternity,
The Future's immortality,
Concentred and absorbed were
In th' Infinite Love revealed there!
My frail poor nature could not long
Th' apocalyptic trance retain;
I sank to earth, and soon among
The mourning crowd I stood again.
But now no grief at lowly Death
Mocked by Earth's pageant swelled my heart;
Nor for that pang of parting breath,
Wherein each mortal bears his part—
Wherein, in dread equality,
The pauper and the monarch lie!
Th' apocalyptic trance retain;
I sank to earth, and soon among
The mourning crowd I stood again.
But now no grief at lowly Death
Mocked by Earth's pageant swelled my heart;
Nor for that pang of parting breath,
Wherein each mortal bears his part—
Wherein, in dread equality,
The pauper and the monarch lie!
