For Ever [poem by Menie Parkes]

[Editor: This poem by Menie Parkes was published in Poems (1867).]

For Ever.

For ever, and for ever,
Eternity,
Our dazzled eyes stretch over
Thy boundless sea!
The blue and chequered waters,
The blue and dappled sky,
Meet on the far horizon —
’Tis all that greets the eye!

Thus, thus for ever, ever,
Eternity,
We fail, who seek to fathom
Thy mystery!
God holds the veil across thy face,
And dares, in majesty,
Our puny hands to touch his shrine,
Immutability!

But ever and for ever,
Eternity,
One darkened door invites
For searching thee;
And, late or soon, we pass
Beyond that steely dome,
Above that sea of glass,
To an eternal home.

Source:
Menie Parkes, Poems, F. Cunninghame, Sydney, [1867], page 3