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AETIUS THE UNBELIEVER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: As he who sails aloof
Last Line: Hereafter, when the trumpet wakes the dead.


As he who sails aloof
Upon the perilous Atlantic, vex'd
By baffling gales, what time his gallant bark
Or on the summit of some dark blue wave
Storm-beaten rides, or plunges into the chasm
From that tremendous altitude, and straight
Lies in his trough becalm'd, as if the grave
Had swallow'd her; nathless undaunted sets
His fix'd regard upon the starry vault,
And notes the hour, and frequent calculates
Distance and bearings, and with skill corrects
The errors of his course. So darkling steer'd
Aetius, through the shoals and fearful blasts
Of his tempestuous time, but never found
That anchorage, secure from every change
Of fitful gales, that haven, which the just
Alone inherit; for the sons of earth,
Who, vex'd with vain disquietude, pursue
Ambition's fatuous light, through miry pools
That yawn for their destruction, stray foredoom'd
Amid delusive shadows to their end.
That certain hope, which shineth evermore
A beacon to the righteous, over them
Its peaceful radiance never shall diffuse;
And bitterness shall be the bread they chew,
While striving to devour the portion snatch'd
By strong injustice from their fellow men,
A baneful meal; and their satiety
Shall be a curse, more fatal than the void
Of meager famine, an unwholesome weight,
That haply shall bring dreams beyond the grave
To the charged soul, and phantoms of the things
Which have been on this earth, and which shall be
Hereafter, when the trumpet wakes the dead.





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