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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>A Poem On The Last Day - Book III</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The book unfolding, the resplendent seat<br>Of saints and angels, the tremendous fate<br>Of guilty souls, the gloomy realms of woe,<br>And all the horrors of the world below,<br>I next presume to sing. What yet remains<br>Demands my last, but most exalted, strains.<br>And let the Muse or now affect the sky,<br>Or in inglorious shades for ever lie.<br>She kindles, she's inflamed so near the goal;<br>She mounts, she gains upon the starry pole;<br>The world grows less as she pursues her flight,<br>And the sun darkens to her distant sight.<br>Heaven, opening, all its sacred pomp displays,<br>And overwhelms her with the rushing blaze!<br>The triumph rings! archangels shout around!<br>And echoing Nature lengthens out the sound!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ten thousand trumpets now at once advance;<br>Now deepest silence lulls the vast expanse;<br>So deep the silence, and so strong the blast,<br>As Nature died when she had groan'd her last.<br>Nor man nor angel moves: the Judge on high<br>Looks round, and with His glory fills the sky:<br>Then on the fatal book His hand He lays,<br>Which high to view supporting seraphs raise;<br>In solemn form the rituals are prepared,<br>The seal is broken, and a groan is heard.<br>And thou, my soul, (O fall to sudden prayer,<br>And let the thought sink deep!) shalt thou be there?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">See on the left, (for by the great command<br>The throng divided falls on either hand,)<br>How weak, how pale, how haggard, how obscene!<br>What more than death in every face and mien!<br>With what distress, and glarings of affright,<br>They shock the heart, and turn away the sight!<br>In gloomy orbs their trembling eye-balls roll,<br>And tell the horrid secrets of the soul.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Each gesture mourns, each look is black with care,<br>And every groan is loaden with despair.<br>Reader, if guilty, spare the Muse, and find<br>A truer image pictured in thy mind.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>Shouldst thou behold thy brother, father, wife,<br>And all the soft companions of thy life,<br>Whose blended interests levell'd at one aim,<br>Whose mix'd desires sent up one common flame,<br>Divided far; thy wretched self alone<br>Cast on the left, of all whom thou hast known;<br>How would it wound! What millions wouldst thou give<br>For one more trial, one day more to live!<br>Flung back in time an hour, a moment's space,<br>To grasp with eagerness the means of grace;<br>Contend for mercy with a pious rage,<br>And in that moment to redeem an age!<br>Drive back the tide, suspend a storm in air,<br>Arrest the sun; but still of this despair.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Mark, on the right, how amiable a grace!<br>Their Maker's image fresh in every face!<br>What purple bloom my ravish'd soul admires,<br>And their eyes sparkling with immortal fires!<br>Triumphant beauty! charms that rise above<br>This world, and in bless'd angels kindle love!<br>To the great Judge with holy pride they turn,<br>And dare behold the' Almighty's anger burn;<br>Its flash sustain, against its terror rise,<br>And on the dread tribunal fix their eyes.<br>Are these the forms that moulder'd in the dust?<br>O the transcendent glory of the just!<br>Yet still some thin remains of fear and doubt<br>The' infected brightness of their joy pollute.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thus the chaste bridegroom, when the priest draws nigh,<br>Beholds his blessing with a trembling eye,<br>Feels doubtful passions throb in every vein,<br>And in his cheeks are mingled joy and pain,<br>Lest still some intervening chance should rise,<br>Leap forth at once, and snatch the golden prize;<br>Inflame his woe by bringing it so late,<br>And stab him in the crisis of his fate.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Since Adam's family, from first to last,<br>Now into one distinct survey is cast;<br>Look round, vain-glorious Muse, and you whoe'er<br>Devote yourselves to Fame, and think her fair;</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Look round, and seek the lights of human race,<br>Whose shining acts Time's brightest annals grace;<br>Who founded sects; crowns conquer'd, or resign'd;<br>Gave names to nations, or famed empires join'd;<br>Who raised the vale, and laid the mountain low,<br>And taught obedient rivers where to flow;<br>Who with vast fleets, as with a mighty chain,<br>Could bind the madness of the roaring main:<br>All lost! all undistinguish'd! nowhere found!<br>How will this truth in Bourbon's palace sound?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">That hour, on which the' Almighty King on high<br>From all eternity has fix'd His eye,<br>Whether His right hand favour'd, or annoy'd,<br>Continued, alter'd, threaten'd, or destroy'd;<br>Southern or eastern sceptre downward hurl'd,<br>Gave north or west dominion o'er the world;<br>The point of time, for which the world was built,<br>For which the blood of God Himself was spilt,<br>That dreadful moment is arrived.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Aloft, the seats of bliss their pomp display,<br>Brighter than brightness this distinguish'd day;<br>Less glorious, when of old the' eternal Son<br>From realms of night return'd with trophies won;<br>Through heaven's high gates when He triumphant rode,<br>And shouting angels hail'd the victor God.<br>Horrors, beneath, darkness in darkness, hell<br>Of hell, where torments behind torments dwell;<br>A furnace formidable, deep, and wide,<br>O'er-boiling with a mad sulphureous tide,<br>Expands its jaws, most dreadful to survey,<br>And roars outrageous for the destined prey.<br>The sons of light scarce unappall'd look down,<br>And nearer press Heaven's everlasting throne.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Such is the scene; and one short moment's space<br>Concludes the hopes and fears of human race.<br>Proceed who dares!-I tremble as I write;<br>The whole creation swims before my sight:<br>I see, I see, the Judge's frowning brow:<br>Say not, 'tis distant; I behold it now.<br>I faint, my tardy blood forgets to flow,<br>My soul recoils at the stupendous woe;<br>That woe, those pangs, which from the guilty breast,<br>In these, or words like these, shall be express'd:-</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Who burst the barriers of my peaceful grave?<br>Ah, cruel Death! that would no longer save,<br>But grudged me e'en that narrow dark abode,<br>And cast me out into the wrath of God;<br>Where shrieks, the roaring flame, the rattling chain,<br>And all the dreadful eloquence of pain,<br>Our only song; black fire's malignant light,<br>The sole refreshment of the blasted sight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Must all those powers Heaven gave me to supply<br>My soul with pleasure, and bring-in my joy,<br>Rise up in arms against me, join the foe,<br>Sense, Reason, Memory, increase my woe?<br>And shall my voice, ordain'd on hymns to dwell,<br>Corrupt to groans, and blow the fires of hell?<br>O! must I look with terror on my gain,<br>And with existence only measure pain?<br>What! no reprieve, no least indulgence given,<br>No beam of hope from any point of heaven?<br>Ah, Mercy! Mercy! art thou dead above?<br>Is love extinguish'd in the Source of Love?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Bold that I am! did Heaven stoop down to hell?<br>The' expiring Lord of Life my ransom seal?<br>Have not I been industrious to provoke?<br>From His embraces obstinately broke?<br>Pursued, and panted for His mortal hate,<br>Earn'd my destruction, labour'd out my fate?<br>And dare I on extinguish'd love exclaim?<br>Take, take full vengeance, rouse the slackening flame;<br>Just is my lot-but O! must it transcend<br>The reach of time, despair a distant end?<br>With dreadful growth shoot forward, and arise,<br>Where Thought can't follow, and bold Fancy dies?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``NEVER! Where falls the soul at that dread sound?<br>Down an abyss how dark, and how profound!<br>Down, down, (I still am falling,-horrid pain!)<br>Ten thousand thousand fathoms still remain;<br>My plunge but still begun.-And this for sin?<br>Could I offend, if I had never been,<br>But still increased the senseless happy mass,<br>Flow'd in the stream, or shiver'd in the grass?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Father of Mercies! why from silent earth<br>Didst Thou awake, and curse me into birth?<br>Tear me from quiet, ravish me from night,<br>And make a thankless present of Thy light?<br>Push into being a reverse of Thee,<br>And animate a clod with misery?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``The beasts are happy; they come forth, and keep<br>Short watch on earth, and then lie down to sleep.<br>Pain is for man; and O! how vast a pain,<br>For crimes which made the Godhead bleed in vain,<br>Annull'd His groans, as far as in them lay,<br>And flung His agonies and death away!<br>As our dire punishment for ever strong,<br>Our constitution too for ever young;<br>Cursed with returns of vigour, still the same,<br>Powerful to bear and satisfy the flame;<br>Still to be caught, and still to be pursued;<br>To perish still, and still to be renew'd!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``And this, my Help! my God! at Thy decree?<br>Nature is changed, and hell should succour me.<br>And canst Thou, then, look down from perfect bliss,<br>And see me plunging in the dark abyss?<br>Calling Thee Father in a sea of fire?<br>Or pouring blasphemies at Thy desire?<br>With mortals' anguish wilt Thou raise Thy name,<br>And by my pangs Omnipotence proclaim?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Thou, who canst toss the planets to and fro,<br>Contract not Thy great vengeance to my woe;<br>Crush worlds; in hotter flames fallen angels lay:<br>On me Almighty wrath is cast away.<br>Call back Thy thunders, Lord, hold-in Thy rage,<br>Nor with a speck of wretchedness engage:<br>Forget me quite, nor stoop a worm to blame;<br>But lose me in the greatness of Thy name.<br>Thou art all love, all mercy, all Divine;<br>And shall I make those glories cease to shine?<br>Shall sinful man grow great by his offence,<br>And from its course turn back Omnipotence?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">``Forbid it! and O! grant, great God, at least<br>This one, this slender, almost no request:<br>When I have wept a thousand lives away,<br>When torment is grown weary of its prey,<br>When I have raved ten thousand years in fire,<br>Ten thousand thousand, let me then expire.''</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Deep anguish, but too late! The hopeless soul,<br>Bound to the bottom of the burning pool,<br>Though loath, and ever loud blaspheming, owns,<br>He's justly doom'd to pour eternal groans;</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Enclosed with horrors, and transfix'd with pain,<br>Rolling in vengeance, struggling with his chain;<br>To talk to fiery tempests; to implore<br>The raging flame to give its burnings o'er;<br>To toss, to writhe, to pant beneath his load,<br>And bear the weight of an offended God.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The favour'd of their Judge in triumph move<br>To take possession of their thrones above;<br>Satan's accursed desertion to supply,<br>And fill the vacant stations of the sky;<br>Again to kindle long-extinguish'd rays,<br>And with new lights dilate the heavenly blaze;<br>To crop the roses of immortal youth,<br>And drink the fountain-head of sacred truth;<br>To swim in seas of bliss, to strike the string,<br>And lift the voice to their Almighty King;<br>To lose eternity in grateful lays,<br>And fill heaven's wide circumference with praise.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But I attempt the wondrous height in vain,<br>And leave unfinish'd the too lofty strain;<br>What boldly I begin, let others end;<br>My strength exhausted, fainting I descend,<br>And choose a less, but no ignoble, theme,-<br>Dissolving elements, and worlds in flame.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The fatal period, the great hour, is come,<br>And Nature shrinks at her approaching doom;<br>Loud peals of thunder give the sign, and all<br>Heaven's terrors in array surround the ball;<br>Sharp lightnings with the meteors' blaze conspire,<br>And, darted downward, set the world on fire;<br>Black rising clouds the thicken'd ether choke,<br>And spiry flames dart through the rolling smoke,<br>With keen vibrations cut the sullen night,<br>And strike the darken'd sky with dreadful light;<br>From heaven's four regions, with immortal force,<br>Angels drive-on the wind's impetuous course<br>To' enrage the flame: it spreads, it soars on high,<br>Swells in the storm, and billows through the sky:<br>Here winding pyramids of fire ascend,<br>Cities and deserts in one ruin blend;<br>Here blazing volumes, wafted, overwhelm<br>The spacious face of a far-distant realm;<br>There, undermined, down rush eternal hills,<br>The neighbouring vales the vast destruction fills.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Hear'st thou that dreadful crack? that sound which broke<br>Like peals of thunder, and the centre shook?<br>What wonders must that groan of Nature tell!<br>Olympus there, and mightier Atlas, fell;<br>Which seem'd above the reach of fate to stand,<br>A towering monument of God's right hand;<br>Now dust and smoke, whose brow so lately spread<br>O'er shelter'd countries its diffusive shade.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Show me that celebrated spot, where all<br>The various rulers of the sever'd ball<br>Have humbly sought wealth, honour, and redress,<br>That land which Heaven seem'd diligent to bless,<br>Once call'd Britannia: can her glories end?<br>And can't surrounding seas her realms defend?<br>Alas! in flames behold surrounding seas!<br>Like oil, their waters but augment the blaze.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Some angel say, Where ran proud Asia's bound?<br>Or where with fruits was fair Europa crown'd?<br>Where stretch'd waste Libya? Where did India's store<br>Sparkle in diamonds, and her golden ore?<br>Each lost in each, their mingling kingdoms glow,<br>And all, dissolved, one fiery deluge flow:<br>Thus earth's contending monarchies are join'd,<br>And a full period of ambition find.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And now whate'er or swims, or walks, or flies,<br>Inhabitants of sea, or earth, or skies;<br>All on whom Adam's wisdom fix'd a name;<br>All plunge and perish in the conquering flame.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">This globe alone would but defraud the fire,<br>Starve its devouring rage: the flakes aspire,<br>And catch the clouds, and make the heavens their prey;<br>The sun, the moon, the stars, all melt away;<br>All, all is lost; no monument, no sign,<br>Where once so proudly blazed the gay machine.<br>So bubbles on the foaming stream expire,<br>So sparks that scatter from the kindling fire.<br>The devastations of one dreadful hour<br>The great Creator's six days' work devour.<br>A mighty, mighty ruin! yet one soul<br>Has more to boast, and far outweighs the whole;<br>Exalted in superior excellence,<br>Casts down to nothing such a vast expense.<br>Have you not seen the' eternal mountains nod,<br>An earth dissolving, a descending God?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">What strange surprises through all nature ran!<br>For whom these revolutions, but for man?<br>For him, Omnipotence new measures takes,<br>For him, through all eternity awakes;<br>Pours on him gifts sufficient to supply<br>Heaven's loss, and with fresh glories fill the sky.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=381275" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Think deeply then, O man, how great thou art;<br>Pay thyself homage with a trembling heart.<br>What angels guard, no longer dare neglect;<br>Slighting thyself, affront not God's respect.<br>Enter the sacred temple of thy breast,<br>And gaze, and wander there, a ravish'd guest;<br>Gaze on those hidden treasures thou shalt find,<br>Wander through all the glories of thy mind.<br>Of perfect knowledge, see, the dawning light<br>Foretells a noon most exquisitely bright!<br>Here springs of endless joy are breaking forth!<br>There buds the promise of celestial worth!<br>Worth, which must ripen in a happier clime,<br>And brighter sun, beyond the bounds of time.<br>Thou, minor, canst not guess thy vast estate,<br>What stores, on foreign coasts, thy landing wait:<br>Lose not thy claim: let virtue's path be trod;<br>Thus glad all heaven, and please that bounteous God,<br>Who, to light thee to pleasures, hung on high<br>Yon radiant orb, proud regent of the sky;<br>That service done, its beams shall fade away,<br>And God shine forth in one eternal day.</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>