466 ODE TO ETERNITY. 



My voice hath not an echo : gone ! 



Assyria, Persia, are no more, 

 Thy mighty wrecks, oh ! Babylon, 

 Are tossed upon an unknown shore, 

 The phantom-shore of thee, 



Eternity ! 



Still, still the pulse of action throbs, 



The pangs of time still follow, 

 Still folly laughs or feeling sobs, 

 And hearts and cheeks are hollow ; 

 But what is this to thee ? 



Eternity ! 



All live, all suffer, all depart, 



Beauty and valour, power and pride, 

 What has been from the yearning heart, 

 Draws tributary grief, beside 

 The funeral urn of thee, 



Eternity ! 



What has been is, and still will be ; 



Time hath no pause to his career, 

 No page to all his history, 



No check, no change, no hope, no fear, 

 But what belongs to thee, 



Eternity. 



So goes the world, from hour to day, 



From day to year, from year to age ; 



And, when e'en Time hath passed away, 



'Twill leave no trace upon thy page, 



No rain-drop in thy mighty sea, 



Eternity. 



Past Present Future, are thine own, 



A point within thy wondrous plan ; 



What art thou then, immense unknown, 



That fancy's dim eye fails to scan 



The faintest shadowing of thee, 



Eternity ! 



What art thou, unimagin'd space, 

 Unmeasured measureless abyss ! 

 Oh ! human mind can never trace 

 A compass to a thought like this, 

 A boundlessness like thee, 



Eternity ! 



E'en Reason's godlike gift is vain ! 



Less vain to tame the foaming sea r 

 Less vain to count the gathering grain 

 Upon the sands of Araby, 

 Than body aught of thee, 



Oh ! vast Eternity ! 



W. G. T. 



