Page:The poems of George Eliot (Crowell, 1884).djvu/307

 And fetched and held before the glazed eyes

The things they best had loved to look upon;

But never glance or smile or sigh he won.

The generations stood around those twain

Helplessly gazing, till their father Cain

Parted the press, and said, "He will not wake;

This is the endless sleep, and we must make

A bed deep down for him beneath the sod;

For know, my sons, there is a mighty God

Angry with all man's race, but most with me.

I fled from out His land in vain!—'t is He

Who came and slew the lad, for He has found

This home of ours, and we shall all be bound

By the harsh bands of His most cruel will,

Which any moment may some dear one kill.

Nay, though we live for countless moons, at last

We and all ours shall die like summers past.

This is Jehovah's will, and He is strong;

I thought the way I travelled was too long

For Him to follow me: my thought was vain!

He walks unseen, but leaves a track of pain,

Pale Death His footprint is, and He will come again!"

And a new spirit from that hour came o'er

The race of Cain: soft idlesse was no more,

But even the sunshine had a heart of care,

Smiling with hidden dread—a mother fair

Who folding to her breast a dying child

Beams with feigned joy that but makes sadness mild.

Death was now lord of Life, and at his word

Time, vague as air before, new terrors stirred,

With measured wing now audibly arose

Throbbing through all things to some unknown close.

Now glad Content by clutching Haste was torn.

And Work grew eager, and Device was born.