Classic Poem

Day of death! in silence speeding
On the wings of darkness near!
How my inmost nature trembles,
Melting with excess of fear!
When, in sleepless thought reclin'd,
I depict thee to my mind.

Vainly strives imagination
That dread moment to portray;
When the soul, her course completed,
Soon to quit her home of clay,
Fiercely wrestles, might and main,
With her yielding fleshly chain.

When the rigid eyeballs darken;
When the torpid senses fail;
When the tongue its task refuses;
When the face, all wan and pale,
Members numb, and panting breath,
Tell of quick-approaching death.

While reviv'd from deep oblivion,
Thoughts and words, a mingled maze,
Long forgotten deeds, unnumber'd,
Crowd before the spirit's gaze;
Turn whichever way she will,
Ever there abiding still!

Oh, how then the guilty spirit
Shall her wasted years deplore!
Shall bewail salvation's season
Idly lost for evermore!
How supreme shall be her pain,
To have liv'd her life in vain!

Oh, how bitter then the sweetness
Of deluding flesh shall seem!
What a phantom, human greatness,
All dissolving like a dream!
What a mockery, pleasures brief,
Follow'd by eternal grief!

While the soul, her worth perceiving,
Which before she never weigh'd,
Spurns the filth in which so lately
She was lying, self-betray'd;
And, at any risk, would be
From her carnal bondage free.

King immortal! I beseech Thee
By Thy Cross of bitter woe;
Jesu Christ! at my departure
Thy sustaining grace bestow;
Oh, in me at that dread hour,
Crush the tyrant-tempter's power.

Scatter all his host infernal;
Lay me fast in Thee asleep;
Then to fields of life eternal
Bear me, Shepherd of the sheep!
There to bask in sight of Thee,
Safe for all futurity!