I ENTERED once, at break of day,
A chapel, lichen-stained and gray,
Where a congregation dozed and heard
An old monk read from a written Word.
No light through the window-panes could pass,
For shutters were closed on the rich-stained glass;
And in a gloom like the nether night
The monk read on by a taper's light.
Ghostly with shadows. that shrank and grew
As the dim light flared, were aisle and pew;
And the congregation that dozed around,
Listened without a stir or sound--
Save one, who rose with wistful face,
And shifted a shutter from its place.
Then light flashed in like a flashing gem-
For dawn had come unknown to them-
And a slender beam, like a lance of gold,
Shot to a crimson curtain-fold,
Over the bended head of him
Who pored and pored by the taper dim;
And it kindled over his wrinkled brow
Such words-" The law which was till now: "
And I wondered that, under that morning ray,
When night and shadow were scattered away,
The monk should bow his locks of white By a taper's feebly flickering lightShould pore and pore, and never seem To notice the golden morning-beam.
WHAT may we take into the vast Forever?
That marbie door
Admits no fruit of all our long endeavor,
No fame-wreathed crown we wore,
No garnered lore.
What can we bear beyond the unknown portal!
No gold, no gains
Of all our toiling in the life immortal
No hoarded wealth remains,
Nor gilds, nor stains.
Naked from out that far abyss behind us
We entered here:
No word came with our coming, to remind us
What wondrous world was near,
Into the silent, starless Night before us,
Naked we glide:
No hand has mapped the constellations o'er us,
No comrade at our side,
Yet fearless toward that midnight, black and