Earth's Shadow

I have but passed the first short stage
Of life, and yet I'm growing weary ;
For every step towards riper age
The way becomes more dreary.

I look behind ; — few years ago
The world seemed full of fairy flowers, —
I loved them ; for I did not know
How sin pervades Earth's loveliest bowers.

Like Italy's fair sunny vales
With unknown deathly vapours teeming —
Or like Sahara's sand-charged gales
Beneath a sun unclouded beaming, —

Such is our Earth. Roam where you will,
Seems loveliness the eye entrancing ;
The silent glen, the breezy hill,
The sun-tipped wavelet blithely dancing.

But gaze again. Each zephyr's breath
Uplifts a veil, dark truths revealing ;
For all is stained with sin, and death
The fairest buds is grimly sealing.

That sense of sin ! It casts a cloud
O'er all Earth's scenes of glee and pleasure
Is nought then pure amid her crowd
Of joys ? nought spotless of her treasure ?

Nought, nought ! cries Echo. How I love
The spirit which to me is given !
My priceless gem, my cherished dove,
My sweetest, dearest gift of heaven.

How oft I Ve sought for solace in
My own loved soul in hours of sadness !
Oh, how I love it ! It has been
My more than friend, my fount of gladness.

But oh, 't is sinful ! Even here
My simple joy and love are ending ;
How can the mind to me be dear
Where sin with every thought is blending ?

If e'en my Eden is not pure,
How can my heart's love rest below ?
Say, will the passage-bird endure
To tarry 'mid the northern snow ?

It cannot rest ! Like early dew
A pure warm Sun hath called it higher
Where sin is not ; where, holy too,
E'en / may tune a sinless lyre.