THE world was still, not sleeping—for an awe
Was over all the earth— the eyes of men,
What their dim spirits could not gaze on, saw,
And they before the truth were speechless then;
The ships that were home speeding, stood like things
Dead in an instant, as the dropping wings
Of the affrighted winds ceased to upbear
Their wide spread sails— there was a total death
Of all the powers of motion and of breath,
And nothing stirred in earth, or sea, or air;
While the loud voice rolled on from shore to shore,
The angel voice, that vowed that time should be no more.

And in an instant was the vow fulfilled,
And the unwearied wheels, on which the earth,
In her wide course, had rolled even from her birth,
Were, by the sound of that great angel, stilled;
And time was nothing more than a lone moat,
In the broad light, eternity, to float,
Forgotten, and unmarked; aye, as a sea
Whose rolling waves are checked and calm at once,
So was the boundlessness of the expanse
Of that great ocean of eternity,
When all the years that heaved upon its breast
Were gone, without a single trace, to rest.

And there was no more change; the highest heaven,
From which the sky had vanished as a scroll,
Shone out in glory, now the veil was riven,
Sending its light into the human soul,—
But not the light of mercy, or of grace;
This was the beam of truth, whereby was seen,
All that within the spirit's depth had been;
And whether dark, or stainless, was its trace,
There was no change!—the hour of change was gone,
Men by their actions stood or fell alone;
The hour of hope, of fear, of thought was o'er,
For God had vowed that time should be no more.