WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS SUFFERING CLAY. 1. WHEN coldness wraps this suffering clay, But leaves its darken'd 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? 2. Eternal, boundless, undecay'd, A thought unseen, but seeing all, In one broad glance the soul beholds, And all, that was, at once appears. 3. Before Creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the future mars or makes, While sun is quench'd or system breaks, Fix'd in its own eternity. 4. Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear, 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. VOL. IV. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. 1. THE King was on his throne, A thousand cups of gold, In Judah deem'd divine Jehovah's vessels hold The godless Heathen's wine! 2. 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. L "The wisest of the earth, "And expound the words of fear, "Which mar our royal mirth." 4. Chaldea's seers are good, But here they have no skill; And the unknown letters stood Untold and awful still. And Babel's men of age Are wise and deep in lore; But now they were not sage, They saw-but knew no more. 5. A captive in the land, A stranger and a youth, He heard the king's command, The prophecy in view; The morrow proved it true. 6. "Belshazzar's grave is made, "His kingdom pass'd away, "He, in the balance weigh'd, "Is light and worthless clay. "The shroud, his robe of state, "His canopy the stone; "The Mede is at his gate! "The Persian on his throne!" |