George Gordon Byron

Hebrew Melodies 16. When Coldness Wraps this Suffering Clay

I.

When coldness wraps this suffering clay,
⁠     Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?
It cannot die, it cannot stay,
⁠⁠     But leaves its darkened dust behind.
Then, unembodied, doth it trace
⁠⁠     By steps each planet's heavenly way?

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,
⁠⁠     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.