Then, unembodied, doth it trace
By steps each planetâs heavenly way?
Or fill at once the realms of space,
A thing of eyes, that all survey?
Eternal, boundless, undecayâd,
A thought unseen, but seeing all,
All, all in earth, or skies displayâd,
Shall it survey, shall it recall!
Each fainter trace that memory holds,
So darkly of departed years
In one broad glance the soul beholds,
And all, that was, at once appears.
Before creation peopled earth,
Its eye shall roll through chaos back;
And where the furthest heaven had birth,
The spirit trace its rising track
And where the future mars or makes,
Its glance dilate oâer all to be,
While sun is quenchâd or system breaks,
Fixâd in its own eternity
Above or love, hope, hate, or fear
It lives all passionless and pure
An age shall fleet like earthly years;
Its years as moments shall endure
Away, away, without a wing
Oâer all, through all, its thought shall fly;
A nameless and eternal thing,
Forgetting what it was to die
