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| THOU unrelenting Past! | |
| Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain, | |
| And fetters, sure and fast, | |
| Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign. | |
| |
| Far in thy realm withdrawn | 5 |
| Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom, | |
| And glorious ages gone | |
| Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb. | |
| |
| Childhood, with all its mirth, | |
| Youth, Manhood, Age that draws us to the ground, | 10 |
| And last, Man’s Life on earth, | |
| Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound. | |
| |
| Thou hast my better years; | |
| Thou hast my earlier friends, the good, the kind, | |
| Yielded to thee with tears— | 15 |
| The venerable form, the exalted mind. | |
| |
| My spirit yearns to bring | |
| The lost ones back—yearns with desire intense, | |
| And struggles hard to wring | |
| Thy bolts apart, and pluck thy captives thence. | 20 |
| |
| In vain; thy gates deny | |
| All passage save to those who hence depart; | |
| Nor to the streaming eye | |
| Thou giv’st them back—nor to the broken heart. | |
| |
| In thy abysses hide | 25 |
| Beauty and excellence unknown; to thee | |
| Earth’s wonder and her pride | |
| Are gathered, as the waters to the sea; | |
| |
| Labors of good to man, | |
| Unpublished charity, unbroken faith, | 30 |
| Love, that midst grief began, | |
| And grew with years, and faltered not in death. | |
| |
| Full many a mighty name | |
| Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unrevered; | |
| With thee are silent fame, | 35 |
| Forgotten arts, and wisdom disappeared. | |
| |
| Thine for a space are they— | |
| Yet shalt thou yield thy treasures up at last: | |
| Thy gates shall yet give way, | |
| Thy bolts shall fall, inexorable Past! | 40 |
| |
| All that of good and fair | |
| Has gone into thy womb from earliest time, | |
| Shall then come forth to wear | |
| The glory and the beauty of its prime. | |
| |
| They have not perished—no! | 45 |
| Kind words, remembered voices once so sweet, | |
| Smiles, radiant long ago, | |
| And features, the great soul’s apparent seat. | |
| |
| All shall come back; each tie | |
| Of pure affection shall be knit again; | 50 |
| Alone shall Evil die, | |
| And Sorrow dwell a prisoner in thy reign. | |
| |
| And then shall I behold | |
| Him, by whose kind paternal side I sprung, | |
| And her, who, still and cold, | 55 |
| Fills the next grave—the beautiful and young. | |
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