Maria Jane Jewsbury

Passing Away

                       Abp. Leighton.

I ASKED the stars in the pomp of night,
Gilding its blackness with crowns of light,
Bright with beauty and girt with power,
Whether eternity were not their dower;
And dirge-like music stole from their spheres,
Bearing this message to mortal ears:
"We have no light that hath not been given,
We have no strength but shall soon be riven,
We have no power wherein man may trust,
Like him are we, things of time and dust;
And the legend we blazon with beam and ray,
And the song of our silence, is Passing away.
"We shall fade in our beauty, the fair and bright,
Like lamps that have served for a festal night;
We shall fall from our spheres, the old and strong,
Like rose-leaves swept by the breeze along;
The worshipped as gods in the olden day,
We shall be like a vain dream Passing away."
From the stars of heaven, and the flowers of earth,
From the pageant of power, and the voice of mirth,
From the mists of morn on the mountain's brow,
From childhood's song, and affection's vow,
From all, save that o'er which soul bears sway,
Breathes but one record Passing away.
Passing away, sing the breeze and rill,
As they sweep on their course by vale and hill;
Through the varying scenes of each earthly clime.
'Tis the lesson of nature the voice of time
And man at last like his fathers grey,
Writes in his own dust Passing away.