A GULF in the sky beyond the outermost faintest mark Of star-dust, a fearful gulf illumined by never a spark, Where thousands of systems like ours might roll around in the dark— The very dark of dark, in spite of the light that runs Streaming along its marge from the splendor of dying suns, And in spite of the light that spreads like the threads of wind-blown hair For leagues, that out-million the millions, across the abysm there, And in spite of the myriad worlds that, borne upon gleaming tides, Have tumbled, ruining, down the terrible slope of its sides. So dark, and the dark of dark, so deep, and the deep of deep, Where never a sound doth stir, and never a life-throb creep. The Pit of the Universe is it? the wild and bottomless grave For the things that God in his mercy has vainly endeavored to save? Where all the things that are useless, and all that love decay, And all things evil, are thrown forever and ever away? Or is it the vast Outside, so void of the things that are, That, bearing aloft not even the candle of one pale star, Our God himself has ventured never as yet so far? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ETUDES DE PLUSIERS PAYSAGES DE L' AME: 1 by HAYDEN CARRUTH WHEN I WROTE A LITTLE by HAYDEN CARRUTH TO WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS ON TAGORE by MARIANNE MOORE THE ENEMY'S PORTRAIT by THOMAS HARDY THE VAMPIRE by RUDYARD KIPLING TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE THIRD DAY: SCANDERBERG by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW |