Sagas of Vaster Britain: Poems of the Race, the Empire and the Divinity of Man

by William Wilfred Campbell

 

'NOT UNTO ENDLESS DARK'

 
NOT unto endless dark do we go down,
    Though all the wisdom of wide earth said yea,
    Yet my fond heart would throb eternal nay.
Night, prophet of morning, wears her starry crown,
And jewels with hope her murkiest shades that frown.
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    Death’s doubt is kernelled in each prayer we pray.
    Eternity but night in some vast day
Of God’s far-off red flame of love’s renown.

Not unto endless dark. We may not know
The distant deeps to which our hopings go,

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    The tidal shores where ebbs our fleeting breath:
But over ill and dread and doubt’s fell dart,
Sweet hope, eternal, holds the human heart,
    And love laughs down the desolate dusks of death.