WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS SUFFERING CLAY.1 I. WHEN coldness wraps this suffering clay, But leaves its darkened dust behind. By steps each planet's heavenly way? Or fill at once the realms of space, A thing of eyes, that all survey? 5 II. Eternal, boundless, undecayed, A thought unseen, but seeing all, Shall it survey, shall it recall: And all that was at once appears. ΙΟ 15 1 This solemn strain of meditative verse reveals Byron's feeling in regard to death and the immortality of the soul. 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, IV. Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear, 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. 20 25 30 ON THIS DAY I COMPLETE MY THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR.1 MISSOLONGHI, January 22, 1824. 'Tis time this heart should be unmoved, My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The fire that on my bosom preys Is lone as some volcanic isle ; No torch is kindled at its blaze A funeral pile. The hope, the fear, the jealous care, And power of love, I cannot share, 5 ΙΟ 15 But wear the chain. 1 Byron died April 19, 1824, about three months after writing this prophetic poem. The last stanza is a fit epitaph for the brave poet. But 'tis not thus-and 'tis not here Such thoughts should shake my soul, nor now, Where glory decks the hero's bier, Or binds his brow. The sword, the banner, and the field, Awake! (not Greece-she is awake!) Tread those reviving passions down, 20 25 30 If thou regrett'st thy youth, why live? The land of honorable death Is here:-up to the field, and give 35 Seek out-less often sought than found— Then look around, and choose thy ground, And take thy rest. 40 |