The Eternal Silence

Around this rolling sphere of Man There lies a vast Unknown, Beyond the space that he can scan With tracts of starlight sown.

Beneath the shadow of th' Unknown From age to age he stands, And to the Void in wavering hope He stretches praying hands.

But in the Void no signs appear, It stands unbroken still, And from the void no word of cheer, But silence deep and chill.

And when the upstart race of men Has ceased from all this earth, When past is their brave strife with Fate, When past are Death and Birth;

When lifeless, sightless, blank and cold The home of man's poor breath; Still will this ball through space be rolled, In Silence deep as death.