Cuándo será

Oh, when shall I, from prison free,
To the Empyrean wing my longing flight,
Cleaving the skies in liberty,
Leaving this earth's entombing plight,
Behold, unharmed, the Truth's most sacred light?
There shall I tarry, freed from care,
In Heaven's pure splendor, glorious demesne ;
All knowledge 'fore my soul laid bare
That e'er can be, or e'er has been,
Its most recondite lore will clear be seen.
Before my eyes the laws displayed
How once the Sov' reign Hand the stars did greet,
The world's foundations firmly laid
By plumb and level, true, complete,
To ponderous elements gave stable seat.
Those lofty columns shall I see
That high-exalted bear our planet's weight,
The fetters know 'gainst which the sea
Rolls billows curbed by kindly fate,
By Providence that chains its wild estate ;

And why this globe doth tremble, quake,
And why the shrilly North-Winds rage and roar,
The hollow waves in surges break
That lash the skies, to heaven soar,
And why the ebb and flood-tides ne'er give o'er.
Whence babbling brooks their being take,
Where flowing fountains, whence the streams arose,
The rills that ripple to the lake,
Whence come the frosts, the winter snows,
What brings the summer-heat when Sirius glows ;
The drizzling rains within the sky,
Who holds their misty burden in its place,
Who wields the thunderbolt on high,
Who speeds the lurid levin's pace,
And holds the day and night in his embrace.
Hast thou not marked, in days serene
A-sudden clouds the balmy air of spring,
The air grows black, no ray is seen,
The wild winds howl, no bird doth sing,
The powdered dust to Heaven the tempests fling?
Within that sombre, boding cloud
God's chariot rolls in dread, majestic flight,
'Midst portents dire, in thunders loud,
Whilst vivid fires flash blazing light,
The planets quake, and nations bow in fright.

The angry floods in deluge fall
Filling the swollen river's turbid bed,
The peasant's soul the storms appall,
Destroy his harvest, ruin spread —
In one short moment is a year's work fled.
In Heaven's most exalted sphere
The movements of the starry host I'll know,
The signs and omens that appear
From planet houses, earthward flow,
And rule the fate of all the orbs below.
Who guides their course in nightly ways,
Who first applied the torch that lit their flame
With myriad, sparkling, gilded rays ;
And why the Pleiads trembling came
Led to the Ocean's brink, in fear and shame :
The eternal source of life and light
That burns immortal, fed from its own spark ;
Wherefore so slow the summer's flight,
The winter's night so drear and dark,
All shall I know, and well their causes mark.
My soul in Heaven shall raptured be
Amidst the Seraphs of the loftiest race ;
Full of content, from troubles free,
In mansions pure, of golden grace,
Of happiest spirits most-blessed dwelling-place !