The Complete Poems of Robert Browning

XVI. I felt commence The Judgment-Day: to retrocede used to be too past due now. —‘In very deed, (I uttered to myself) ‘that Day! ’ The instinct burned away All darkness from my spirit too— There, stood I, chanced on and glued, I knew, settling on the area. the alternative used to be made— And bare and disguiseless stayed, An unevadeable, the very fact. My mind held ne’ertheless compact Its senses, nor my center declined Its office—rather, either mixed to assist me during this juncture—I misplaced now not a second,—agony Gave boldness: there, my existence had finish And my selection with it—best protect, Applaud them! I resolved to assert, So used to be I framed via Thee, this manner ‘I positioned to exploit Thy senses the following! ‘It was once so appealing, so close to, ‘Thy world,—what might I do yet pick out ‘My half there? Nor did I refuse ‘To glance above the brief boon ‘In time—but it was once demanding so quickly ‘As in a quick existence, to renounce ‘Such good looks: I had positioned the cup ‘Undrained of part its fullness, by means of; ‘But, to give up it completely, ‘—That was once too challenging! Nor did the Cry ‘Which bade surrender it, contact my mind ‘Authentically deep and undeniable ‘Enough, to make my lips enable cross. ‘But Thou, who knowest all, dost be aware of ‘Whether i used to be now not, life’s short whereas, ‘Endeavouring to reconcile ‘Those lips—too tardily, regrettably! ‘To letting the valuable remnant cross, ‘One day,—some drops of earthly stable ‘Untasted! Is it for this temper, ‘That Thou, whose earth delights so good, ‘Has made its supplement a Hell? XVII. a last belch of fireside like blood, Overbroke all, subsequent, in a single flood Of doom. Then fireplace was once sky, and sky was once fireplace, and either, one extasy, Then ashes. yet I heard no noise (Whatever was once) simply because a Voice Beside me spoke hence, “All is completed, “Time end’s, Eternity’s began, “And thou paintings judged for evermore! ” XVIII. I regarded up; all was once as earlier than; Of that cloud-Tophet overhead, No hint was once left: I observed as a substitute the typical around me, and the sky Above, stretched drear and emptily Of existence: ’twas the final watch of evening, other than what brings the morning really, whilst the armed angel, conscience-clear His activity nigh performed, leans o’er his spear And gazes on this planet he guards, secure one evening extra via all its wards, until eventually God relieve him at his put up. ‘A dream—a waking dream at so much! ’ (I spoke out speedy that i would shake The horrid nightmare off, and wake. ) ‘The world’s long gone, but the realm is the following? ‘Are now not all issues as they seem? ‘Is Judgment earlier for me by myself? ‘—And the place had position the good White Throne? ‘The emerging of the short and useless? ‘Where stood they, small and nice? Who learn ‘The sentence from the Opened ebook? ’ So, through levels, the blood forsook My middle, and permit it beat afresh: I knew I should still holiday during the mesh Of horror, and breathe almost immediately— while, lo, back, the Voice through me! XIX. I observed . . . Oh, brother, ’mid a ways sands The palm-tree-cinctured urban stands,— Bright-white underneath, as Heaven, bright-blue, Above it, whereas the years pursue Their direction, not able to hamper Its paradisal snort at destiny: One morn,—the Arab staggers blind O’er a brand new tract of demise, calcined To ashes, silence, nothingness,— Striving, with dizzy wits, to bet Whence fell the blow: what if, ’twixt skies And prostrate earth, he should still shock The imaged Vapour, head to foot.