Poems (Hinxman)/"That Mortality might be swallowed up of Life"
"THAT MORTALITY MIGHT BE SWALLOWED UP OF LIFE."
Like sunken vessels, like sea-buried towns,All that has owed to death or time its birth,Its fickle beauty, or its bitter strength,—All change whose dawning made the eager heartBeat high with expectation, but to droopIn vain regret ere yet its noon was told—Pageants and strifes, wild aimings, restless hopes,—The tender, mournful honours of the grave,—The bursting grief, the long enduring ache,—All absence, parting, weariness, desire,—All shall be swallowed up; all shall go downBeneath the inflowing of the sea of life;Above, the luminous eternal Calm Shall settle on its face, and none shall leanWith wistful gazing o'er its depths, as onceThe mariner looked down for buried Tyre,And none shall leave their joyful harps unstrungTo pace its shore with pensive steps, and seekFor fragments left of the remorseful tide:Nor tide, nor wind, on that eternal seaFor ever still, yet fresh, shall bring to viewThe unloved relics of mortality.
Jan. 15. 1853.