COMING EVENT by JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN

Curtain the lamp, and bury the bowl-
The ban is on drinking!
Reason shall reign the queen of the soul
When the spirits are sinking.
Chained lies the demon that smote with blight
Men's morals and laurels;
So, hail to Health, and a long Good-night
To old wine and new quarrels!

Nights shall descend, and no taverns ring
To the roar of our revels;
Mornings shall dawn, but none of them bring
White lips and blue devils.
Riot and Frenzy sleep with Remorse
In the obsolete potion,
And Mind grows calm as a ship on her course
O'er the level of Ocean.

So should it be!-for Man's world of romance
Is fast disappearing,
And shadows of Changes are seen in advance,
Whose epochs are nearing;
And days are at hand when the Best will require
All means of salvation,
And the souls of men shall be tried in the fire
Of the Final Probation.

And the Witling no longer or sneers or smiles;
And the Worldling dissembles;
And the blank-minded Sceptic feels anxious at whiles,
And wonders and trembles;
And fear and defiance are blent in the jest
Of the blind Self-deceiver;
And infinite hope is born in the breast
Of the childlike Believer.

Darken the lamp, then, and bury the bowl,
Ye Faithfullest-hearted!
And, as your swift years hasten on to the goal
Whither worlds have departed,
Spend all, sinew, soul, in your zeal to atone
For the past and its errors;
So best shall ye bear to encounter alone
The Event and its terrors.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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