Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Verse Musings on Nature, Faith, and Freedom (1889). II. Freedom. III. To the Future WorldJohn Owen (18361896)
D
Thy Being or non-Being frets not me;
I would not lift—if so I might,
The curtain that enshrouds thy night.
Stern duty’s sphere—in Earth-life’s range;
Still must I work, learn, think, and say,
As now I do, from day to day.
One round with Man, Life, Thought fulfil;
With these, their Life-course done—I must
In death commingle—dust to dust.
One moment brightening living eyes,
Demands no more of Life, Tune, Bloom,
And space, than Earth allots it room.
Though Earth-things ’scape man’s Earth-born view,
Eternal Time claims this one day,
Though Heaven and Earth both pass away.
Worthy of Immortality;
Yet, careless somewhat—if its lot
Be that, or death-still’d and forgot.
This Earth- to Heaven-life to expand,
Or else this Life itself to guard
As its sole duty, worth, reward.