a last dream.
19
Impassible and still, and the awed sea
Groans only and upheaves in marble waves,
When the black sleet-wind whispers, Mutiny!
There is a shaft, as all the world may know,
A monument of ice uptowering dim
Into the heavens' crowned mystery—whereon
Are graven with touches of the light, a name,
And following that, a chronicle of deeds.
And when the brief, high history makes end,
The page of ice goes on—"And one day, Earth,
Gray mother, bound with frost and torn with fire,
Shall surely be redeemed by hero dust.
Each sluggish, atom of her sphere, shall bloom
Nobly in human shape, and take the print,
And do the mandate of a godlike will,
Until her apotheosis be won.
Dear then to her and to the silent Powers,
And borne on their strong wings above defeat,
And fear of mockery, all they who build
In stern emprise a shrine for the Unseen;
Groans only and upheaves in marble waves,
When the black sleet-wind whispers, Mutiny!
There is a shaft, as all the world may know,
A monument of ice uptowering dim
Into the heavens' crowned mystery—whereon
Are graven with touches of the light, a name,
And following that, a chronicle of deeds.
And when the brief, high history makes end,
The page of ice goes on—"And one day, Earth,
Gray mother, bound with frost and torn with fire,
Shall surely be redeemed by hero dust.
Each sluggish, atom of her sphere, shall bloom
Nobly in human shape, and take the print,
And do the mandate of a godlike will,
Until her apotheosis be won.
Dear then to her and to the silent Powers,
And borne on their strong wings above defeat,
And fear of mockery, all they who build
In stern emprise a shrine for the Unseen;
