<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538077" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Past</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou unrelenting Past!<br>Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain,<br>And fetters, sure and fast,<br>Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Far in thy realm withdrawn<br>Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom,<br>And glorious ages gone<br>Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Childhood, with all its mirth,<br>Youth, Manhood, Age, that draws us to the ground,<br>And last, Man's Life on earth,<br>Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou hast my better years,<br>Thou hast my earlier friends--the good--the kind,<br>Yielded to thee with tears--<br>The venerable form--the exalted mind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My spirit yearns to bring<br>The lost ones back--yearns with desire intense,<br>And struggles hard to wring<br>Thy bolts apart, and pluck thy captives thence.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In vain--thy gates deny<br>All passage save to those who hence depart;<br>Nor to the streaming eye<br>Thou giv'st them back--nor to the broken heart.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In thy abysses hide<br>Beauty and excellence unknown--to thee<br>Earth's wonder and her pride<br>Are gathered, as the waters to the sea;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Labours of good to man,<br>Unpublished charity, unbroken faith,--<br>Love, that midst grief began,<br>And grew with years, and faltered not in death.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Full many a mighty name<br>Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unrevered;<br>With thee are silent fame,<br>Forgotten arts, and wisdom disappeared.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thine for a space are they--<br>Yet shalt thou yield thy treasures up at last;<br>Thy gates shall yet give way,<br>Thy bolts shall fall, inexorable Past!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All that of good and fair<br>Has gone into thy womb from earliest time,<br>Shall then come forth to wear<br>The glory and the beauty of its prime.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They have not perished--no!<br>Kind words, remembered voices once so sweet,<br>Smiles, radiant long ago,<br>And features, the great soul's apparent seat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All shall come back, each tie<br>Of pure affection shall be knit again;<br>Alone shall Evil die,<br>And Sorrow dwell a prisoner in thy reign.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then shall I behold<br>Him, by whose kind paternal side I sprung,<br>And her, who, still and cold,<br>Fills the next grave--the beautiful and young.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Cullen+Bryant">William Cullen Bryant</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=538077" data-title="The Past de William Cullen Bryant" data-description="Thou unrelenting Past! Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain, And fetters, sure and fast, Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign. Far in thy realm withdrawn Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom, And glorious ages gone Lie deep withi..."></div> </div> </div>

solid border dashed border dotted border double border groove border ridge border inset border outset border no border blue green red purple cyan gold silver black