Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/462

VARIOUS POEMS Down sank the continents, the waters under,

And fire burst forth where now the oceans roll;

Of those wan flames the dismal exhalations

Stifled, anon, each living creature's breath,

Dear life was driven from its utmost stations,

And seethed beneath the smoking pall of death!

Then brawling leapt full height yon helmèd giants;

The proud Sierras on the skies laid hold;

Their watch and ward have bidden time defiance,

Guarding thy grave amid the sands of gold.

Thy kind was then no more! What untold ages,

Ere Man, renewed from earth by slow degrees,

Woke to the strife he now with Nature wages

O'er ruder lands and more tempestuous seas.

How poor the gold, that made thy burial splendid,

Beside one single annal of thy race,

One implement, one fragment that attended

Thy life—which now has left not even a trace!

From the soul's realm awhile recall thy spirit,

See how the land is spread, how flows the main,

The tribes that in thy stead the globe inherit,

Their grand unrest, their eager joy and pain.

Beneath our feet a thousand ages moulder,

Grayer our skies than thine, the winds more chill;

Thine the young world, and ours the hoarier, colder,

But Man's unfaltering heart is dauntless still.

And yet—and yet like thine his solemn story;

Grope where he will, transition lies before;

We, too, must pass! our wisdom, works, and glory

In turn shall yield, and change, and be no more.

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