Page:The Dream of Pythagoras and Other Poems.djvu/41

 " This said, he smil'd,

And gently laid me in my mother's arms.

Thus far the vision brought me—then it fled,

And all was silence. Ah! 'twas but a dream;

This soul in vain struggles for purity;

This self-tormenting essence may exist

For ever; but what joy can being give

Without perfection? vainly do I seek

That bliss for which I languish. Surely yet

The Day-spring of our nature is to come;

Mournful we wait that dawning; until then

We grovel in the dust—in midnight grope,

For ever seeking, never satisfied."

Thus spake the solemn seer, then pausing, sigh'd.

For all was darkness.