Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PASSING BELL: IN MEMORIAM, GEORGII GRANVILLE BRADLEY, S.T.P., by MARGARET LOUISA WOODS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PASSING BELL: IN MEMORIAM, GEORGII GRANVILLE BRADLEY, S.T.P., by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Silent, the bell hung in the tower and waited
Last Line: Slowly the bell ceased on the listening midnight.
Alternate Author Name(s): Woods, Mrs. Margaret Louisa Bradley
Subject(s): Bradley, George Granville (1821-1903),; Death; Graves; Memory; Silence; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones


SILENT the bell hung in the tower and waited.
Under, in luminous channels of the city,
The lights went whirling in a fiery swarm. Fathomless night
Brooded in heaven with dim receded stars.
Posuisti me in tenebrosis
Silent the bell hung in the tower and waited.

Far underneath raved the tempest of London,
The shallow storm of our life,
Under the abyss of everlasting silence.
et in umbra mortis.
The bell hung in the dark tower and waited.

Beneath the bell, each in his sepulchre,
Slept on the austere dead.
In tenebris stravi lectulum
One after one under the dominant tower
The living laid them down,
Even as the dead they rested, but their warm
Life rested not, Life that pursues in slumber,
Life that may never pause nor taste remission.
et in pulvere dormiam.
Aloof the bell brooded above the city.
Then to the man watching beneath at midnight
In the dark bell imprisoned voices whispered,
Heard but of him watching beneath at midnight,
In the iron silence stirred spectres of sound.
Cor meum conturbatum est,
Death with hounds of Fear stirred in the darkness.
The ghosts of sound prisoned within the silence
Eddied about the bell, voices of anguish:
"O loose us, thou that watchest!
Rain us abroad, scatter us, a hail of fear,
On dark roofs and the shining hurry of streets.
Hear, thou unheeding city, drunken with Life!
Hear, ye souls of Life,
Whether of those that sleep or those that waken!
Formido mortis cecidit super me
Such is the doom of Death, none may escape it.

"Lone must he lie, comfort may not come near him,
The dead are separate from him and the living.
Death will have no companions.
Cold is his bed, what though with warmth encompassed,
His homely bed, where long secure he slumbered,
Falls from him, Death drags down the obscure abyss
Slowly his fainting flesh.
Darkened his eyes, never lamp may lighten them.
Love cannot touch, Pity may not approach him."
sicut umbra quum declinat.
Silent the bell hung in the tower and waited.

Still under silence urged the spectral voices:
"Ye whose perpetual pulses rock your slumber
With hushed beat of Life, ye that keep vigil,
Hear the word of Death!
The just man dies, the sinners also perish,
Death hath but one dominion.
Unus introitus est omnibus ad vitam,
One is the end, whether ye rest or labour,
Whether ye seek wisdom or else pursuing
Pleasure or power toil.
Death with indifferent hand prepares one guerdon,
With darkness fills the brain and the hands with dust.
et similis exitus.
Now is the hour of Death and the hour of Birth.

"Ye that bring forth to-night in the obscure city,
Unto what end the anguish of your travail?
His mother bore with pain, yet with rejoicing
—All Death inherits—
Him who with pain here is from life released.
Sic et nos nati desivimus esse.
Now shall the bell utter the word of Death."

Lo in profound night, when hardly audible,
London beneath, whispering, stirred as in slumber.
Far above it, above its wandering mists,
Under the tranquil stars,
Solemn and deep the bell spoke in the silence:
Pax Dei
Spoke as alone with God in benediction.

"Peace to all souls, calm after toil and tumult,
Peace as of him whose labour is accomplished,
Praise unto God for life and death consummate,
Thanks to God the giver!"
High, as above the earth a spirit ascended,
Pausing, pronounced the great word of blessing,
quae exsuperat omnem sensum.
The deep bell spoke in the gulf of midnight.

The mighty voice, having communed with silence,
Rolled o'er the immense city resonant
In long waves of sound,
Qui confidunt in Illo intelligent veritatem.
Death unto Life uttering high messages.

Even as a wind sweeps from the face of heaven,
Heaps underfoot, confused and mountainous mass,
The crested clouds, showing in sudden glory,
Height beyond height, the stars,—
So from the face of Life triumphant Death
Scatters and drives the dim clouds of living.
In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen.
Life re-emerges, tranquil, shining, august.
So did the man watching beneath at midnight,
Hear how the sound of Death
Over the city hung in benediction.
It blessed the calm dead, the strenuous living,
All souls of the just.
Hidden in dark rooms of the teeming city,
Spirits of love heard it, consoled in slumber,
Pax est electis Ejus.
And Peace replenished the deep wells of the soul.

Birth also it blessed, and the joy of mothers;
For so in the old time, the hardly remembered,
The bright soul of the dead
Came unto earth, welcome and meet to be welcomed
Now having achieved, enlightened, enjoyed,
Welcome the dear soul returns to its Father.
Justorum autem animae
Now is the hour of Death and the hour of Birth.

He who below the tower mourned in his vigil,
Under that sound heard the impenetrable
Majestic silence of sepultured Time;
And heard the dead man's years
Falling as water falls, spilt from a cup
Into the weltering, vague, transforming sea.
So did the counted years
Fall and be mingled with the infinite Past.
in manu Dei sunt.
The bell tolled them down into Eternity.

The long ebb of Life, hushed in subsidence.
He heard and all waters
Flowing to the vast, unfruitful, infinite sea.
Beheld risen from the sea, the eternal waters
Forever feeding, adorning the fruitful earth.
Also the dead man's years,
Secret, diffused, feeding the heart of the world;
Non tanget illos tormentum mortis.
And shroudless stars brightening about the earth.

Then in the tower, under the assembled stars,
Over the sceptred dead, the ministrant living,
Each in their place of rest,
He saw one Angel brood, toil and repose
Blessing, the Angel of the ineffable Peace.
Pax in aeternum Dei.
Slowly the bell ceased on the listening midnight.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net