While I Survey

While I survey the long, and deep, and wide
Expanse of time, the Past with things that were
Throng’d in dark multitude; the Future bare
As the void sky when not a star beside
The thin pale moon is seen; the race that died
While yet the families of earth were rare,
And human kind had but a little share
Of the world’s heritage, before me glide
All dim and silent. Now with sterner mien
Heroic shadows, names renown’d in song,
Rush by. And, deck’d with garlands ever green,
In light and music sweep the bards along;
And many a fair, and many a well-known face,
Into the future dive, and blend with empty space.