Lines

O, if to die was NOT TO BE— 
     If to advance upon the vast 
Which men have called Eternity, 
     And there, with all the unknown past, 
Become an utter nothingness, 
How dread a thing it were to die, 
     And thus fall into something less 
Than the dull clod we trample on— 
Our life a spark just lit, and gone, 
With boundless Aims and Aspirations, 
With infinite Fears and Exultations, 
Outflashing and then quench'd again,
Forever in the blank Inane—
     A very Demon's mocking scorn!
But sateless Hope, and sateless Love,
An eye forever raised above,
     High hungerings for the Boundless, 
Soul winged with thoughts that never sleep,
Down sweeping through the eternal deep
     Into the Dim and Soundless;
These write on our sky-arch of Life 
     In firewords that the blind might see,
Bright blazing over all its strife,
     "THY BEING IS ETERNITY!"