| ←Memory | Hope by from Poems (1848) |
To ---- II→ |
Maiden! in whose
kindling eye,
Burns the fire of
prophecy,
On whose brow its
glories shine,
Priestess at the
hidden shrine;
Tell me what fair
visions rise,
As the future
greets thine eyes.
Thither where thou
still dost turn,
Does a bright
Shekinah burn?
Does thy
outstretched, beckoning hand,
Point us to a
promised land,
Where the rage of
War no more
Shall drench the
crimsoned earth with gore?
Where no more, with
features gaunt,
Shall stalk the
haggard form of Want,
Nor Misery's wail,
nor Famine's cries
Upon the ear of
Plenty rise,
When the voice of
Liberty
Shall bid the
earth's oppressed go free?
Thou, on whom the
Future beams,
Tell me, are these
idle dreams?
"As the messenger
went forth,
Seeking o'er the
deluged earth,
So, my gaze hath
wandered wide,
O'er the Future's
troubled tide.
As across the
waters dark,
The bird returned
to that lone bark,
With the leaf of
olive tree,
So return I unto
thee.
Not yet do wind and
wave subside;
Not yet do land and
sea divide;
No verdant earth
the vision cheers,
No peak of Ararat
appears;
But spanning all
that troubled sky,
The Bow of Promise
shines on high."
| This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. |
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