A FRAGMENT
Methought I saw
Life swiftly treading over endless space;
And, at her foot-print, but a bygone pace,
The ocean-past, which, with increasing wave,
Swallowd her steps like a pursuing grave.
Sad were my thoughts that anchord silently
On the dead waters of that passionless sea,
Unstirrd by any touch of living breath:
Silence hung over it, and drowsy Death,
Like a gorged sea-bird, slept with folded wings
On crowded carcasessad passive things
That wore the thin grey surface, like a veil
Over the calmness of their features pale.
And there were spring-faced cherubs that did sleep
Like water-lilies on that motionless deep,
How beautiful! with bright unruffled hair
On sleek unfretted brows, and eyes that were
Buried in marble tombs, a pale eclipse!
And smile-bedimpled cheeks, and pleasant lips,
Meekly apart, as if the soul intense
Spake out in dreams of its own innocence:
And so they lay in loveliness, and kept
The birth-night of their peace, that Life een wept
With very envy of their happy fronts;
For there were neighbour brows scarrd by the brunts
Of strife and sorrowingwhere Care had set
His crooked autograph, and marrd the jet
Of glossy locks with hollow eyes forlorn,
And lips that curld in bitterness and scorn
Wretched,as they had breathed of this worlds pain,
And so bequeathd it to the world again
Through the beholders heart in heavy sighs.
So lay they garmented in torpid light,
Under the pall of a transparent night,
Like solemn apparitions lulld sublime
To everlasting rest,and with them Time
Slept, as he sleeps upon the silent face
Of a dark dial in a sunless place.