Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Ernest FranciscoFenollosa

1194 The Golden Age

THIS world was not

As it now is seen:

It once was clothed

With a deeper green;

And rarer gems

Than the ice-caves hold

The sea brought up

On the sands of gold.

But rust of ages,

The breath of Time,

The meadows covered

With early rime;

And the wild grass faded,

The gems were gone,

And the wave fell cold

As it thundered on.

In bygone ages

The world was fair,

And the moon-god played

With her golden hair;

And the paling stars

With love-white arms

Bent down to welcome

A sister’s charms.

The air lay sweet

With the breath of pines;

The hill-tops glowed

With their wealth of mines;

And sweet, and low,

And rich, and free,

The wild, dark music

Stole over the sea.

And the sea-waves laughed

At the saffron moon;

And the musk-rose smiled

With her soul of June;

And the golden age

Of Nature’s years

No warning heard

Of her coming tears.

But the hand of man

Was the sword of death:

A poison lurked

In his savage breath,

And the wealth of years

And the glow of years

Were drowned in a flood

Of swelling tears.

The world was fair

In the days of yore;

But that golden age

Shall come no more.

The sun may shine,

And wild flowers bloom;

But the goal of all

Is the open tomb,—

The end of all

Is the silent grave;

And beauty lies

In the cold still wave.

And the world shall harden

The hearts of men

Till it hear the voice

Of its Christ again.