Ballads : patriotic & romantic / by Clinton Scollard [electronic text]

LIFE

SENTIENT from out the illimitable void, With darkness palpitant, into a space Concave, with vasts of scintillating blue, And peopled by innumerable forms, Was I cast groping. Overhead an eye Of dazzling fire depended, and there rose Murmurs of voices multitudinous, And sound of wind and waters. Then the light Failed, and above upon the gloom were pricked Irradiant sparks, and slowly there upclomb A luminous spectral disc. Again the fire; Again and yet again the ghostly orb; And aye the sound of voice and wind and wave! Now was I stung with cold, now scorched with heat; Now racked with pain, now swept with ecstasy. Then suddenly, and ere I was aware What meant the ceaseless shuttle, — the great void! And, as I passed, a whisper —"That was Life!"