They are all Gone into the World of Light Analysis

1They are all gone into the world of light!
2And I alone sit ling'ring here;
3Their very memory is fair and bright,
4And my sad thoughts doth clear.

5It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast,
6Like stars upon some gloomy grove,
7Or those faint beams in which this hill is drest,
8After the sun's remove.

9I see them walking in an air of glory,
10Whose light doth trample on my days:
11My days, which are at best but dull and hoary,
12Mere glimmering and decays.

13O holy Hope! and high Humility,
14High as the heavens above!
15These are your walks, and you have show'd them me
16To kindle my cold love.

17Dear, beauteous Death! the jewel of the just,
18Shining nowhere, but in the dark;
19What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust
20Could man outlook that mark!

21He that hath found some fledg'd bird's nest, may know
22At first sight, if the bird be flown;
23But what fair well or grove he sings in now,
24That is to him unknown.

25And yet as angels in some brighter dreams
26Call to the soul, when man doth sleep:
27So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes
28And into glory peep.

29If a star were confin'd into a tomb,
30Her captive flames must needs burn there;
31But when the hand that lock'd her up, gives room,
32She'll shine through all the sphere.

33O Father of eternal life, and all
34Created glories under thee!
35Resume thy spirit from this world of thrall
36Into true liberty.

37Either disperse these mists, which blot and fill
38My perspective still as they pass,
39Or else remove me hence unto that hill,
40Where I shall need no glass.

.: :.

Confusion of life after death, the speaker feels the memories of his friends have gone and become stars, they are in Ether above Earthly decay. He believes death is a jewel and a privilege, the bird is the metaphor of the unknown world after life and unknown destinations. The tomb is the earth and when the stars are in the tomb they are trapped it is not until they are realised they can shin. Prayer to Father asking him to let him pass into Ether he wants the mist (clouds) to pass. Speaker is searching to enlightenment concerns with life after death

| Posted on 2005-05-10 | by Approved Guest