ld's Collection,
To conclude with the doxology.

In "Easter-Day" the interest is purely personal. It is a long and
somewhat intricate discussion between two friends upon the basis of
belief and gives no glimpses of the historical progress of belief. In
brief, the poem discusses the relation of the finite life to the
infinite life. The first speaker is not satisfied with the different
points of view suggested by the second speaker. First, that one would be
willing to suffer martyrdom in this life if only one could truly believe
it would bring eternal joy. Or perhaps doubt is God's way of telling who
are his friends, who are his foes. Or perhaps God is revealed in the law
of the universe, or in the shows of nature, or in the emotions of the
human heart. The first speaker takes the ground that the only
possibility satisfying modern demands is an assurance that this world's
gain is in its imperfectness surety for true gain in another world. An
imaginatively pictured experience of his own soul is next presented,
wherein he represents himself at the Judgment Day as choosing the finite
life instead of the infinite life. As a result, he learns there is
nothing in finite life except as related to infinite life. The way
opened out toward the infinite through love is that which gives the
light of life to all the good things of earth which he desired--all
beauties, that of nature and art, and the joy of intellectual activity.

EASTER-DAY

. . . . . . .

XV

And as I said
This nonsense, throwing back my head
With light complacent laugh, I found
Suddenly all the midnight round
One fire. The dome of heaven had stood
As made up of a multitude
Of handbreadth cloudlets, one vast rack
Of ripples infinite and black,
From sky to sky. Sudden there went,
Like horror and astonishment,
A fierce vindictive scribble of red
Quick flame across, as if one said
(The angry scribe of Judgment) "There--
Burn it!" And straight I was aware
That the whole ribwork round, minute
Cloud touching cloud beyond compute,
Was tinted, each with its own spot
Of burning at the core, till clot
Jammed against clot, and spilt its fire
Over all heaven, which 'gan suspire
As fanned to measure equable,--
Just so great conflagrations kill
Night overhead, and rise and sink,
Reflected. Now the fire would shrink