Pale, ghostly Vision from the coffined years, + 

Planting the cross with thy world-wandering feet, + 

Stern Watcher through the centuries’ storm and beat, + 

In those sad eyes, between those grooves of tears⁠— + 

Those eyes like caves where sunlight never dwells + 

And stars but dimly shine⁠—stand sentinels + 

That watch with patient hope, through weary days, + 

That somewhere, sometime, He indeed may “come,” + 

And thou at last find thee a resting place, + 

Blast-driven leaf of Man, within the tomb. + 

Aye, they have cursed thee with the bitter curse, + 

And driven thee with scourges o’er the world; + 

Tyrants have crushed thee, Ignorance has hurled + 

Its black anathema;⁠—but Death’s pale hearse, + 

That bore them graveward, passed them silently; + 

And vainly didst thou stretch thy hands and cry, + 

“Take me instead”;⁠—not yet for thee the time, + 

Not yet⁠—not yet: thy bruised and mangled limbs + 

Must still drag on, still feed the Vulture, Crime, + 

With bleeding flesh, till rust its steel beak dims. + 

Aye, “till He come,”⁠—He⁠—freedom, justice, peace⁠— + 

Till then shalt thou cry warning through the earth, + 

Unheeding pain, untouched by death and birth, + 

Proclaiming “Woe, woe, woe,” till men shall cease + 

To seek for Christ within the senseless skies, + 

And, joyous, find him in each other’s eyes. + 

Then shall be builded such a tomb for thee + 

Shall beggar kings’ as diamonds outshine dew! + 

The Universal Heart of Man shall be + 

The sacred urn of “the accursed Jew.” + 