XXIII.

THE BALLAD OF THE WORLD'S VANITY.

I.

Mournfully maundering, Life's last moments squandering, Weary, weary, wandering, Through this world of sin, Hermit-shade! I call thee; Lead me to the valley— That mysterious alley, Where I may creep in.

World of strange illusion! Fancy-born delusion! Reason-bred confusion! Phantasmagoria! Love, where shall I find thee? Faith, how shall I bind thee? Truth, who has defined thee? Changing every day.

Streets of hurry scurry! Fields of fire and fury! Homes of wear and worry! Passing quickly by; Pleasure a wild snatching, Dying in the catching, Pain eternal watching With relentless eye.

Sorrow, old Sin's daughter! Screams of eldritch laughter! Burning tears thereafter! I've felt the vanity; Still the hope pursuing, The pursuit ever rueing, Possession still undoing The hope's fond prophecy.

II.

Sun! I've seen thy grandeur, Scenes of gorgeous splendour, Visions passing wonder In ocean, sea, and sky; Thunders o'er us pealing, Earthquakes 'neath us reeling, Fiery comets wheeling Through all immensity.

Virtue! man has crowned thee, For beautiful he found thee; Yet millions have disowned thee, And seek dark Vice's way, Hypocrisy, deep-hooded, Injustice still obtruded, Stern Cruelty, cold-blooded, Make brother man their prey.

Kind Love's pure affection! Pity's benediction! Charity's sweet action! All blessed urbanities; Man on man still preying; Bleating lambkins slaying! Devouring blood, and saying All soft humanities.

III.

Dreaming, doubting, moping, Hopelessly still hoping, Dimly, darkly groping My being's mystery; This sobbing and this sighing, This laughing and this crying, This living and this dying— Man's mortal history!

Why this wild contention? This mocking, cruel invention— What the deep intention? Who shall give replies? Demons wildly sporting, God's beautiful distorting, Or His own hand extorting Sin-born penalties?

IV.

Those with whom I started Oceans wide have parted: Some are broken-hearted, Some lie in the clay; Those I once heard prattle, For whom I shook the rattle, Engaged in life's vain battle, Push me off the way.

The world's laugh it jeers me, Their looks they seem to fear me, I hear them whisper near me, "Old man, why linger here?" She who loved me dearly, Wandered with me cheerily, Is now a phantom merely, Seen through memory's tear.

Pale ghost, flitting yonder! With drooping head you wander. Deep in thought you ponder Why I stay from thee; Cease those hands to beckon, Vain, vain, may you reckon; Alas! I cannot quicken Death's desired decree.

Weary, weary wandering, Life's last moments squandering, Weary, weary wandering Through this world of sin, None can undeceive me, None but ONE relieve me, None but ONE receive me, His peace to enter in.