Whence came It? Whither tends It? soil of Earth,
And soul of Earth, are these the limits still?
Hast thou no further Vision glimmering yet
Through thy far view, my Hill?
Once, in the days of old,
Where yonder landscape lies,
A fiery Chaos roll’d....
And changed....at last, to skies,
Rocks,....and these fields and Sea....
And warm Humanity.
Now, daily does Man die, and is re-made;
Daily the mountains melt, the sea exhales,
The fields revive and fade.
———What if, some day, they not revive? if Man
No more at last his race replenish can?
If, o’er the perish’d City, gradually
This hill sink down to the exhausted Sea?
If Man and Nature both, both born of Change,
Through Change to Change should pass and cease to be—
Till the whole Earth-life vanish utterly,
A broken wave, a life-cell fail’d and cast,
A climax past?....
What matter, O what matter? Past the range
Of Rise-and-Fall, past the creating strife:
Beyond all Change, though with all changes rife:
Safe still, for ever safe, is That Which saves!
The Ocean is not counted by its waves;
Containing all, by aught containéd never,
Fadeless and formless, past all forms, for ever
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