ce is mute and silent,
Every sound subdued resideth,
Every strain on faltering pinion
From its gaysome course alighteth;
Still and peaceful is the white throng,
Calmness, as in death, prevaileth.
Now he sits enthroned amid them,
And again the strains are wakened,
Mighty as to storms of thunder
Born as from the womb of calmness,
Rising as from death released.
Now his voice is with them mingled
In the songs, and hymns, and anthems,
Which shall evermore continue
Throughout all this land of Blisses,
Where is love the only bondage,
Love the mighty power which holds them."
Thuswise speaketh Sero, telling
Of the land whereto the wicket
On his right hand gives admission.
But far different is the story
Which he giveth of the regions,
Whence the wicket on his left hand
To the wanderer gives admission.
Spoken thus his vivid brief is:
"He, who by this wicket enters,
Loseth hope and loseth courage,
Meeteth gloomy fears and terrors,
Misery and anguish rising
In their wildest forms about him;
And upon the distance looming
Awful terrors, monsters hideous,
Scenes and shadows dark and dreary.
Now the stifled groan of murder,--
Now the seething moan of anguish,--
Now bewailings in bereavement,
And lamentings of the ruined,
Loud, and painful, and laborious,
In an awful concert mingled,
Flow upon his ear bewildered,
As in toil he wanders weary
In the crowd, yet lost and lonely,
To the dreaded pit of terrors,
And its dismal dens and dungeons,
Damp, and stifled, and obnoxious,
Burning with eternal anger
And with lurid flames of vengeance.
Lo! aghast, he starts in terror,
And anon doth sink in anguish,
Weeping for the talents wasted,
And the warnings he despised;
And for hope he looks and longeth
In a deep and fervent longing,
But it is a vain desire;
Nothing but an awful doom sits
Frowning on his pains and terrors.
Onward, on he fast is driven,
Through a rugged path and perilous;
Rising on the hills above him,
Roaring thunders roll and rumble,
With a mighty noise and terror;
All things at their greatness tremble.
Sheets of flame, in livid fierceness,
Sweep and fly in wildest swiftness;
O'er the rugged heights ascending,
Cast their lurid glares upon them,
In their course revealing further
Of the dangers hid in darkness.
And beneath him gulphs are yawning,
Greedy to devour, are gaping;
Torrents deep within them roaring,
Lashing up their foamy billows;
With the laving of their forces
All the pathway shake