Nothing That is Shall Perish Utterly,
But Perish Only to Revive Once More
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nothing that is shall perish utterly,
But perish only to revive again
In other forms, as clouds restore in rain
The exhalations of the land and sea.
Men build their houses from the masonry
Of ruined tombs; the passion and the pain
Of hearts, that long have ceased to beat, remain
To throb in hearts that are, or are to be.
So from old chronicles, where sleep in dust
Names that once filled the world with trumpet tones,
I build this verse; and flowers of song have thrust
Their roots among the loose disjointed stones,
Which to this end I fashion as I must.
Quickened are they that touch the Prophet’s bones.
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The above poem was published in the associated websites on 21 September 2021. It is also part of the November 2019 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, page 07. In both cases it is reproduced from “The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, The Wordsworth Poetry Library, UK, 1994, 886 pp., see p. 786. Its verses open the larger poem entitled “Michael Angelo”. We have add the title.
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these words: “Deserve, then desire”.
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