A moment more,
Like shapeless shadows of the by-gone years,
I saw them in the mist and they were gone--
Gone!--and the sea moaned on and seemed to say--
_'Gone--and forever!_'--So I gladly turned
To look upon the throne--the blazoned throne
That sat upon the everlasting cliff.
The throne had vanished!--Lo where it had stood,
A bed of ashes and a gray-haired man
Sitting upon it bowed and broken down.
And so the vision passed.
"The rising sun
Beamed full upon my face and wakened me,
And there beside me lay my pet--the lamb--
Gazing upon me with his wondering eyes,
And all the fields were bright and beautiful,
And brighter seemed the world. I rose resolved.
I let the cottage and disposed of all;
The lamb went bleating to a neighbor's field;
And oft my heart ached, but I mastered it.
This was the constant burden of my brain--
_'Beggar!_'--I'll teach him that I am a man;
I'll speak and he shall listen; I will rise,
And he shall see my course as I go up
Round after round the ladder of success.
Even as the pine upon the mountain-top
Towers o'er the maple on the mountain-side,
I'll tower above him. Then will I look down
And call him _Father_:--He shall call me _Son_.
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