The glories and the perils of thy day
Are one, O Man ! Thou goest to thine end
With Powers, and for a little thou dost wend
With marshalled Majesties upon their way:
But thee the dread Necessities betray
That nurse, and fearful Splendors that befriend;
And thee shall alien Dominations rend....
Deemest the triumph of the worlds to stay,
Or step by step, through eons overpassed,
Stride with the suns upon their road of awe ?
Thou travelest brief ways that end and sink—
Urged by the hurrying planets; and the vast,
Prone-rushing constellations of the Law
Thunder and press behind thee at the brink.