Nor need is more, with sullen strength of hand To vex the stubborn earth, or plough the main; They dwell apart, a calm heroic band, Not tasting toil or pain.
Nor sang he only of unfading bowers, Where they a tearless, painless age fulfil, In fields Elysian spending blissful hours, Remote from every ill;
But of pure gladness found in temperance high, In duty owned, and reverenced in awe, Of man’s true freedom, that may only lie In servitude to law;
And how ’twas given through virtue to aspire To golden seats in ever-calm abodes; Of mortal men, admitted to the quire Of high immortal Gods.
He sang—a mighty melody divine, That woke deep echoes in the heart of each— Reminded whence they drew their royal line, And to what heights might reach.
And all the while they listened, them the speed Bore forward still of favouring wind and tide, That, when their ears were open to give heed To any sound beside,
The feeble echoes of that other lay, Which held awhile their senses thralled and bound, Were in the distance fading quite away, A dull, unheeded sound.
’Tis not by action only, not by deed, Though that be just and holy, pure and wise, That man may to his last perfection rise; Of suffering as of doing he has need: Thus prospers with due change the heavenly seed, While stormy night succeeds to sunny day; Thus the good metal, proven every way, From the last dross that clung to it is freed. And thus for thee, O glorious man, on whom Love well deserved, and honour waited long, In thy last years in place of timely ease There did remain another loftier doom, Pain, travail, exile, peril, scorn and wrong— Glorious before, but glorified through these.
Many beauteous spots the earth Keepeth yet,—but brighter, fairer Did that long-lost Eden show Than the loveliest that remaineth: So what marvel, when our Sire Was from thence expelled, he waited Lingering with a fond regret Round those blessèd happy places Once his home, while innocence Was his bright sufficient raiment? Long he lingered there, and saw Up from dark abysmal spaces Four strong rivers rushing ever; Saw the mighty wall exalted High as heaven, and on its heights Glimpses of the fiery Angel.
Long he lingered near, with hope Which had never quite abated, That one day the righteous sentence, Dooming him to stern disgraces, Should be disannulled, and he In his first bliss reinstated.