No More Learning

It cannot die, it cannot stay,
But leaves its darkened dust behind.
Then, unembodied, doth it trace
By steps each planet's heavenly way? [lv]
Or fill at once the realms of space,
A thing of eyes, that all survey?

II.

Eternal--boundless,--undecayed,
A thought unseen, but seeing all,
All, all in earth, or skies displayed,[lw]
Shall it survey, shall it recall:
Each fainter trace that Memory holds
So darkly of departed years,
In one broad glance the Soul beholds,
And all, that was, at once appears.

III.

Before Creation peopled earth,
Its eye shall roll through chaos back;
And where the farthest 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,
Fixed in its own Eternity.

IV.

Above or Love--Hope--Hate--or Fear,
It lives all passionless and pure:
An age shall fleet like earthly year;
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.

Seaham, 1815.



VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. [299]

I.

The King was on his throne,
The Satraps thronged the hall:[lx]
A thousand bright lamps shone
O'er that high festival.
A thousand cups of gold,
In Judah deemed divine--[ly]
Jehovah's vessels hold
The godless Heathen's wine!

II.

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.

III.

The monarch saw, and shook,
And bade no more rejoice;
All bloodless waxed his look,
And tremulous his voice.
"Let the men of lore appear,
The wisest of the earth,
And expound the words of fear,
Which mar our royal mirth. "

IV.

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.

V.

A captive in the land,
A stranger and a youth,[300]
He heard the King's command,
He saw that writing's truth.
The lamps around were bright,
The prophecy in view;
He read it on that night,--
The morrow proved it true.

VI.

"Belshazzar's grave is made,[lz]
His kingdom passed away.
He, in the balance weighed,
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!