Eruption in Utopia
There'll be a glassy paradise
Where all will have their crowns of ice,
And all will wear their robes of snow;
And the trees will bow, and the winds will blow—
And men will falter to and fro.
Where all will have their crowns of ice,
And all will wear their robes of snow;
And the trees will bow, and the winds will blow—
And men will falter to and fro.
Men will prowl like timid beasts
Hungry after a hundred feasts
And break the bracken down in the woods,
Crash and fret and gaze and spy—
And look for nothing, low and high.
Hungry after a hundred feasts
And break the bracken down in the woods,
Crash and fret and gaze and spy—
And look for nothing, low and high.
Then they will shiver and go to sleep.
To sleep, to sleep, and toss and sigh—
Sprawled they will mutter where they lie,
And sit up rigid, and wonder why.
Sprawled they will mutter where they lie,
And sit up rigid, and wonder why.
They seem to stretch and never wake:
There is a glaze they cannot break
To the world outside, or the inner eye;
Oh, how they cry and cannot ache,
Oh, how they try and cannot weep,—
And there's nothing to do but shiver and sleep.
There is a glaze they cannot break
To the world outside, or the inner eye;
Oh, how they cry and cannot ache,
Oh, how they try and cannot weep,—
And there's nothing to do but shiver and sleep.
This weight of nothingness is more
Than any planet stood before:
Shades and empty clouds will gather
Tons of fret in weight of weather,
Till under the burden of this lack
Obeisant earth will warp and crack
Open a wound to bleed them terror.
Than any planet stood before:
Shades and empty clouds will gather
Tons of fret in weight of weather,
Till under the burden of this lack
Obeisant earth will warp and crack
Open a wound to bleed them terror.
