WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS SUFFER ING CLAY. 1. WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS SUFFERING CLAY, Ah, whither strays the immortal mind? It cannot die, it cannot stay, But leaves its darkened dust behind. Then, unembodied, doth it trace By steps each planet's heavenly way? Or fill at once the realms of space, A thing of eyes, that all survey? II. Eternal, boundless, undecayed, A thought unseen, but seeing all, All, all in earth, or skies displayed, In one broad glance the soul beholds, And all, that was, at once appears. III. Before Creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the furthest heaven had birth, The spirit trace its rising track. And where the future mars or makes, Its glance dilate o'er all to be, While sun is quenched or system breaks, Fixed in its own eternity. IV. Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear, An age shall fleet like earthly year; Its years as moments shall endure. 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. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. I THE King was on his throne, The Satraps thronged the hall; A thousand bright lamps shone A thousand cups of gold, In Judah deemed divine Jehovah's vessels hold The godless Heathen's wine! II. In that same hour and hall, The fingers of a hand Came forth against the wall, And wrote as if on sand: The fingers of a man ;— A solitary hand Along the letters ran, And traced them like a wand. III. The monarch saw, and shook, And bade no more rejoice; All bloodless waxed his look, And tremulous his voice. |