Sooner or later, in some future date, <br /> (A dreadful secret in the book of Fate) <br /> This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows, <br /> Or when ten thousand harvests more have rose; <br /> When scenes are chang'd on this revolving Earth, <br /> Old empires fall, and give new empires birth; <br /> While other Bourbons rule in other lands, <br /> And, (if man's sin forbids not) other Annes; <br /> While the still busy world is treading o'er <br /> The paths they trod five thousand years before, <br /> Thoughtless as those who now life's mazes run, <br /> Of earth dissolv'd, or an extinguish'd sun; <br /> (Ye sublunary worlds, awake, awake! <br /> Ye rulers of the nation, hear and shake) <br /> Thick clouds of darkness shall arise on day; <br /> In sudden night all Earth's dominions lay; <br /> Impetuous winds the scatter'd forests rend; <br /> Eternal mountains, like their cedars, bend; <br /> The valleys yawn, the troubled ocean roar <br /> And break the bondage of his wonted shore; <br /> A sanguine stain the silver moon o'erspread; <br /> Darkness the circle of the sun invade; <br /> From inmost Heaven incessant thunders roll <br /> And the strong echo bound from pole to pole.<br /><br />Edward Young<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-last-day-excerpt/
