Page:The college beautiful, and other poems.djvu/31

Rh Those sable-vested harbingers Of melancholy guest. We smiled on him for love of these, With eyes that swift grew dim to scan Beneath the veil of courteous ease The faith-forsaken man. To his sad gaze the weary shows And fashions of our vain estate, Our shallow pain and false repose, Our barren love and hate, Are shadows in a land of graves, Where creeds, the bubbles of a dream, Flash each and fade, like melting waves Upon a moonlight stream. Yet loyal to his own despair, Erect beneath a darkened sky, He deems the thorniest truth more fair Than any gilded lie; And stands, the spectre of his age, With hopeless hands that bind the sheaf, Claiming God's work without His wage, The bard of unbelief.