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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>A Poem On The Last Day - Book II</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now man awakes, and from his silent bed,<br>Where he has slept for ages, lifts his head;<br>Shakes off the slumber of ten thousand years,<br>And on the borders of new worlds appears.<br>Whate'er the bold, the rash adventure cost,<br>In wide Eternity I dare be lost.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The Muse is wont in narrow bounds to sing,<br>To teach the swain, or celebrate the king.<br>I grasp the whole, no more to parts confined,<br>I lift my voice, and sing to human kind:<br>I sing to men and angels; angels join,<br>While such the theme, their sacred songs with mine.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Again the trumpet's intermitted sound<br>Rolls the wide circuit of creation round,<br>An universal concourse to prepare<br>Of all that ever breathed the vital air;<br>In some wide field, which active whirlwinds sweep,<br>Drive cities, forests, mountains to the deep,<br>To smooth and lengthen out the' unbounded space,<br>And spread an area for all human race.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now monuments prove faithful to their trust,<br>And render back their long committed dust.<br>Now charnels rattle; scatter'd limbs, and all<br>The various bones, obsequious to the call,<br>Self-moved, advance; the neck perhaps to meet<br>The distant head; the distant legs, the feet.<br>Dreadful to view, see through the dusky sky<br>Fragments of bodies in confusion fly,<br>To distant regions journeying, there to claim<br>Deserted members, and complete the frame.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">When the world bow'd to Rome's almighty sword,<br>Rome bow'd to Pompey, and confess'd her lord.<br>Yet, one day lost, this deity below<br>Became the scorn and pity of his foe.<br>His blood a traitor's sacrifice was made,<br>And smoked indignant on a ruffian's blade.<br>No trumpet's sound, no gasping army's yell,<br>Bid, with due horror, his great soul farewell.<br>Obscure his fall: all weltering in his gore,<br>His trunk was cast to perish on the shore!<br>While Julius frown'd the bloody monster dead,<br>Who brought the world in his great rival's head.<br>This sever'd head and trunk shall join once more,<br>Though realms now rise between, and oceans roar.<br>The trumpet's sound each vagrant-mote shall hear,<br>Or fix'd in earth, or if afloat in air,<br>Obey the signal wafted in the wind,<br>And not one sleeping atom lag behind.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So swarming bees, that, on a summer's day,<br>In airy rings and wild meanders play,<br>Charm'd with the brasen sound, their wanderings end,<br>And, gently circling, on a bough descend.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The body thus renew'd, the conscious soul,<br>Which has perhaps been fluttering near the pole,<br>Or midst the burning planets wondering stray'd,<br>Or hover'd o'er where her pale corpse was laid;<br>Or rather coasted on her final state,<br>And fear'd or wish'd for her appointed fate:<br>This soul, returning with a constant flame,<br>Now weds for ever her immortal frame.<br>Life, which ran down before, so high is wound,<br>The springs maintain an everlasting round.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thus a frail model of the work design'd<br>First takes a copy of the builder's mind,<br>Before the structure firm with lasting oak,<br>And marble bowels of the solid rock,<br>Turns the strong arch, and bids the columns rise,<br>And bear the lofty palace to the skies;<br>The wrongs of Time enabled to surpass,<br>With bars of adamant, and ribs of brass.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">That ancient, sacred, and illustrious dome,<br>Where soon or late fair Albion's heroes come,<br>From camps and courts, though great, or wise, or just,<br>To feed the worm, and moulder into dust;<br>That solemn mansion of the royal dead,<br>Where passing slaves o'er sleeping monarchs tread,<br>Now populous o'erflows: a numerous race<br>Of rising kings fill all the' extended space.<br>A life well-spent, not the victorious sword,<br>Awards the crown, and styles the greater lord.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Nor monuments alone, and burial earth,<br>Labour with man to this his second birth;<br>But where gay palaces in pomp arise,<br>And gilded theatres invade the skies,<br>Nations shall wake, whose unrespected bones<br>Support the pride of their luxurious sons.<br>The most magnificent and costly dome<br>Is but an upper chamber to a tomb.<br>No spot on earth but has supplied a grave,<br>And human skulls the spacious ocean pave.<br>All's full of man; and at this dreadful turn,<br>The swarm shall issue, and the hive shall burn.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Not all at once, nor in like manner, rise:<br>Some lift with pain their slow unwilling eyes;<br>Shrink backward from the terror of the light,<br>And bless the grave, and call for lasting night.<br>Others, whose long-attempted virtue stood<br>Fix'd as a rock, and broke the rushing flood;<br>Whose firm resolve nor beauty could melt down,<br>Nor raging tyrants from their posture frown:-<br>Such, in this day of horrors, shall be seen<br>To face the thunders with a godlike mien:<br>The planets drop, their thoughts are fix'd above;<br>The centre shakes, their hearts disdain to move:<br>An earth dissolving, and a heaven thrown wide,<br>A yawning gulf, and fiends on every side,<br>Serene they view, impatient of delay,<br>And bless the dawn of everlasting day.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Here greatness prostrate falls; there strength gives place:<br>Here lazars smile; there beauty hides her face.<br>Christians, and Jews, and Turks, and Pagans stand,<br>A blended throng, one undistinguish'd band.<br>Some who, perhaps, by mutual wounds expired,<br>With zeal for their distinct persuasions fired,<br>In mutual friendship their long slumber break,<br>And hand in hand their Saviour's love partake.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But none are flush'd with brighter joy, or, warm<br>With juster confidence, enjoy the storm,<br>Than those whose pious bounties, unconfined,<br>Have made them public fathers of mankind.<br>In that illustrious rank, what shining light<br>With such distinguish'd glory fills my sight?<br>Bend down, my grateful Muse, that homage show<br>Which to such worthies thou art proud to owe.<br>Wykeham, Fox, Chicheley! hail, illustrious names,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Who to far-distant times dispense your beams!<br>Beneath your shades, and near your crystal springs,<br>I first presumed to touch the trembling strings.<br>All hail, thrice-honour'd! 'Twas your great renown<br>To bless a people, and oblige a crown.<br>And now you rise, eternally to shine,<br>Eternally to drink the rays Divine.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Indulgent God! O how shall mortal raise<br>His soul to due returns of grateful praise,<br>For bounty so profuse to human kind,<br>Thy wondrous gift of an eternal mind?<br>Shall I, who, some few years ago, was less<br>Than worm, or mite, or shadow can express,-<br>Was nothing; shall I live, when every fire<br>And every star shall languish and expire?<br>When earth's no more, shall I survive above,<br>And through the radiant files of angels move?<br>Or, as before the throne of God I stand,<br>See new worlds rolling from His spacious hand,<br>Where our adventures shall perhaps be taught,<br>As we now tell how Michael sung or fought?<br>All that has being in full concert join,<br>And celebrate the depths of Love Divine!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But O! before this blissful state, before<br>The' aspiring soul this wondrous height can soar,<br>The Judge, descending, thunders from afar,<br>And all mankind is summon'd to the bar.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">This mighty scene I next presume to draw:<br>Attend, great Anna, with religious awe.<br>Expect not here the known successful arts<br>To win attention, and command our hearts:<br>Fiction, be far away; let no machine<br>Descending here, no fabled God, be seen:<br>Behold the God of gods indeed descend,<br>And worlds unnumber'd His approach attend!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Lo! the wide theatre, whose ample space<br>Must entertain the whole of human race,<br>At Heaven's all-powerful edict is prepared,<br>And fenced around with an immortal guard.<br>Tribes, provinces, dominions, worlds o'erflow<br>The mighty plain, and deluge all below:<br>And every age and nation pours along;<br>Nimrod and Bourbon mingle in the throng;<br>Adam salutes his youngest son; no sign<br>Of all those ages which their births disjoin.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">How empty learning, and how vain is art,<br>But as it mends the life, and guides the heart!<br>What volumes have been swell'd, what time been spent,<br>To fix a hero's birth-day or descent!<br>What joy must it now yield, what rapture raise,<br>To see the glorious race of ancient days!<br>To greet those worthies who perhaps have stood<br>Illustrious on record before the flood!<br>Alas! a nearer care your soul demands,<br>Caesar unnoted in your presence stands.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">How vast the concourse! not in number more<br>The waves that break on the resounding shore,<br>The leaves that tremble in the shady grove,<br>The lamps that gild the spangled vault above.<br>Those overwhelming armies, whose command<br>Said to one empire, ``Fall;'' another, ``Stand;''<br>Whose rear lay wrapp'd in night, while breaking dawn<br>Roused the broad front, and call'd the battle on:<br>Great Xerxes' world in arms, proud Cannae's field,<br>Where Carthage taught victorious Rome to yield;<br>(Another blow had broke the Fates' decree,<br>And earth had wanted her fourth monarchy <br>Immortal Blenheim, famed Ramillia's host:-<br>They all are here, and here they all are lost:<br>Their millions swell to be discern'd in vain,<br>Lost as a billow in the' unbounded main.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">This echoing voice now rends the yielding air,<br>For judgment, judgment, sons of men, prepare!<br>Earth shakes anew; I hear her groans profound;<br>And hell through all her trembling realms resound.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Whoe'er thou art, thou greatest power of earth,<br>Bless'd with most equal planets at thy birth:<br>Whose valour drew the most successful sword,<br>Most realms united in one common lord;<br>Who, on the day of triumph, saidst, ``Be Thine<br>The skies, Jehovah: all this world is mine:''<br>Dare not to lift thine eye.-Alas! my Muse,<br>How art thou lost! what numbers canst thou choose?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A sudden blush inflames the waving sky,<br>And now the crimson curtains open fly;<br>Lo! far within, and far above all height,<br>Where heaven's great Sovereign reigns in worlds of light;<br>Whence Nature He informs, and, with one ray<br>Shot from His eye, does all her works survey,<br>Creates, supports, confounds! where time, and place,<br>Matter, and form, and fortune, life, and grace,<br>Wait humbly at the footstool of their God,<br>And move obedient at His awful nod;<br>Whence He beholds us vagrant emmets crawl<br>At random on this air-suspended ball:<br>(Speck of creation!) if He pour one breath,<br>The bubble breaks, and 'tis eternal death.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thence issuing I behold, (but mortal sight<br>Sustains not such a rushing sea of light!)<br>I see, on an empyreal flying throne<br>Sublimely raised, Heaven's everlasting Son;<br>Crown'd with that majesty which form'd the world,<br>And the grand rebel flaming downward hurl'd<br>Virtue, Dominion, Praise, Omnipotence,<br>Support the train of their triumphant Prince.<br>A zone, beyond the thought of angels bright,<br>Around Him, like the zodiac, winds its light.<br>Night shades the solemn arches of His brows,<br>And in His cheek the purple morning glows.<br>Where'er serene He turns propitious eyes,<br>Or we expect, or find, a Paradise:<br>But if resentment reddens their mild beams,<br>The Eden kindles, and the world's in flames.<br>On one hand, Knowledge shines in purest light;<br>On one, the sword of Justice, fiercely bright.<br>Now bend the knee in sport, present the reed;<br>Now tell the scourged impostor He shall bleed!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thus glorious through the courts of heaven the Source<br>Of life and death eternal bends His course;<br>Loud thunders round Him roll, and lightnings play;<br>The' angelic host is ranged in bright array:<br>Some touch the string, some strike the sounding shell,<br>And mingling voices in rich concert swell;<br>Voices seraphic! bless'd with such a strain,<br>Could Satan hear, he were a god again.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Triumphant King of Glory! Soul of Bliss!<br>What a stupendous turn of fate is this!<br>O whither art thou raised above the scorn<br>And indigence of Him in Bethlem born!<br>A needless, helpless, unaccounted guest,<br>And but a second to the fodder'd beast!<br>How changed from Him who, meekly prostrate laid,<br>Vouchsafed to wash the feet Himself had made!<br>From Him who was betray'd, forsook, denied,<br>Wept, languish'd, pray'd, bled, thirsted, groan'd, and died;<br>Hung pierced and bare, insulted by the foe,<br>All heaven in tears above, earth unconcern'd below!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And was't enough to bid the sun retire?<br>Why did not Nature at Thy groan expire?<br>I see, I hear, I feel, the pangs Divine;<br>The world is vanish'd,-I am wholly Thine.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Mistaken Caiaphas! Ah! which blasphemed,-<br>Thou, or thy Prisoner? which shall be condemn'd?<br>Well mightst thou rend thy garments, well exclaim;<br>Deep are the horrors of eternal flame!<br>But God is good! 'Tis wondrous all! E'en He<br>Thou gavest to death, shame, torture, died for thee.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now the descending triumph stops its flight<br>From earth full twice a planetary height.<br>There all the clouds, condensed, two columns raise<br>Distinct with orient veins, and golden blaze:<br>One fix'd on earth, and one in sea, and round<br>Its ample foot the swelling billows sound.<br>These an immeasurable arch support,<br>The grand tribunal of this awful court.<br>Sheets of bright azure, from the purest sky,<br>Stream from the crystal arch, and round the columns fly.<br>Death, wrapp'd in chains, low at the basis lies,<br>And on the point of his own arrow dies.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Here high-enthroned the' eternal Judge is placed,<br>With all the grandeur of His Godhead graced;<br>Stars on His robes in beauteous order meet,<br>And the sun burns beneath His awful feet.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now an archangel eminently bright,<br>From off his silver staff of wondrous height,<br>Unfurls the Christian flag, which waving flies,<br>And shuts and opens more than half the skies:<br>The cross so strong a red, it sheds a stain,<br>Where'er it floats, on earth, and air, and main;<br>Flushes the hill, and sets on fire the wood,<br>And turns the deep-dyed ocean into blood.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">O formidable Glory! dreadful bright!<br>Refulgent torture to the guilty sight.<br>Ah, turn, unwary Muse, nor dare reveal<br>What horrid thoughts with the polluted dwell.<br>Say not, (to make the Sun shrink in his beam,)<br>Dare not affirm, they wish it all a dream;<br>Wish, or their souls may with their limbs decay,<br>Or God be spoil'd of His eternal sway.<br>But rather, if thou know'st the means, unfold<br>How they with transport might the scene behold.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ah how, but by repentance, by a mind<br>Quick and severe its own offence to find;<br>By tears, and groans, and never-ceasing care,<br>And all the pious violence of prayer?<br>Thus then, with fervency till now unknown,<br>I cast my heart before the' eternal throne,<br>In this great temple, which the skies surround,<br>For homage to its Lord a narrow bound:-</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``O Thou! whose balance does the mountains weigh,<br>Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey,<br>Whose breath can turn those watery worlds to flame,<br>That flame to tempest, and that tempest tame;<br>Earth's meanest son, all trembling, prostrate falls,<br>And on the Boundless of Thy goodness calls.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``O give the winds all past offence to sweep,<br>To scatter wide, or bury in the deep!<br>Thy power, my weakness, may I ever see,<br>And wholly dedicate my soul to Thee.<br>Reign o'er my will; my passions ebb and flow<br>At Thy command, nor human motive know.<br>If anger boil, let anger be my praise,<br>And sin the graceful indignation raise.<br>My love be warm to succour the distress'd,<br>And lift the burden from the soul oppress'd.<br>O may my understanding ever read<br>This glorious volume, which Thy wisdom made!<br>Who decks the maiden Spring with flowery pride?<br>Who calls forth Summer, like a sparkling bride?<br>Who joys the mother Autumn's bed to crown,<br>And bids old Winter lay her honours down?<br>Not the great Ottoman, or greater Czar,<br>Not Europe's arbitress of peace and war.<br>May sea and land, and earth and heaven, be join'd,<br>To bring the' eternal Author to my mind!<br>When oceans roar, or awful thunders roll,<br>May thoughts of Thy dread vengeance shake my soul!<br>When earth's in bloom, or planets proudly shine,<br>Adore, my heart, the Majesty Divine!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Through every scene of life, or peace or war,<br>Plenty or want, Thy glory be my care!<br>Shine we in arms? or sing beneath our vine?<br>Thine is the vintage, and the conquest Thine:<br>Thy pleasure points the shaft, and bends the bow;<br>The cluster blasts, or bids it brightly glow:<br>'Tis Thou that lead'st our powerful armies forth,<br>And giv'st great Anne Thy sceptre o'er the north.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Grant I may ever, at the morning ray,<br>Open with prayer the consecrated day;<br>Tune Thy great praise, and bid my soul arise,<br>And with the mounting sun ascend the skies:<br>As that advances, let my zeal improve,<br>And glow with ardour of consummate love;<br>Nor cease at eve, but with the setting sun<br>My endless worship shall be still begun.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``And O! permit the gloom of solemn night<br>To sacred thought may forcibly invite.<br>When this world's shut, and awful planets rise,<br>Call on our minds, and raise them to the skies;<br>Compose our souls with a less dazzling sight,<br>And show all nature in a milder light;<br>How every boisterous thought in calms subsides!<br>How the smooth'd spirit into goodness glides!<br>O how Divine! to tread the Milky Way,<br>To the bright palace of the Lord of Day;<br>His court admire, or for His favour sue,<br>Or leagues of friendship with His saints renew;<br>Pleased to look down, and see the world asleep,<br>While I long vigils to its Founder keep!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381274" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Canst Thou not shake the centre? O control,<br>Subdue by force, the rebel in my soul!<br>Thou, who canst still the raging of the flood,<br>Restrain the various tumults of my blood;<br>Teach me, with equal firmness, to sustain<br>Alluring pleasure, and assaulting pain.<br>O may I pant for Thee in each desire!<br>And with strong faith foment the holy fire!<br>Stretch out my soul in hope, and grasp the prize<br>Which in Eternity's deep bosom lies!<br>At the great day of recompence behold,<br>Devoid of fear, the fatal book unfold!<br>Then, wafted upward to the blissful seat,<br>From age to age my grateful song repeat;<br>My Light, my Life, my God, my Saviour see,<br>And rival angels in the praise of Thee!''</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Edward+Young">Edward Young</a></strong></div>