Aurora

Sunfall, and yet no night ! fire floods the earth !
A molten rainbow flakes the northern sky !
The Polar gates unclose ! and, gleaming forth,
Troop the wild flames that glide and glare on high,
Tinged in their vaulted home with that deep ruddy dye!

Whence flash these mystic signals ? what the scene
Where the red rivers find their founts of flame ?
Far, far away, where icy bulwarks lean
Along the deep, in seas without a name :
Where the vast porch of Hades rears its giant frame !

The underworld of souls ! severed in twain :
One, the fell North, perplexed and thick with gloom ;
And one, the South, that calm and glad domain,
Where asphodel and lotus lightly bloom
'Neath God's own Starry Cross, the shield of peaceful doom.

No quest of man shall touch — no daring keel
Cleave the dark waters to their awful bourne ;
None shall the living sepulchre reveal
Where separate souls must throng, and pause ; and yearn
For their far dust, the signal, and their glad return.