The Last Day

Book I1.70(A dreadful secret in the book of Fate)1.71This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows,1.72Or when ten thousand harvests more have rose;1.73When scenes are chang'd on this revolving Earth,1.74Old empires fall, and give new empires birth;1.75While other Bourbons rule in other lands,1.76And, (if man's sin forbids not) other Annes;1.77While the still busy world is treading o'er1.78The paths they trod five thousand years before,1.79Thoughtless as those who now life's mazes run,1.80Of earth dissolv'd, or an extinguish'd sun;1.81(Ye sublunary worlds, awake, awake!1.82Ye rulers of the nation, hear and shake)1.83Thick clouds of darkness shall arise on day;1.84In sudden night all Earth's dominions lay;1.85Impetuous winds the scatter'd forests rend;1.86Eternal mountains, like their cedars, bend;1.87The valleys yawn, the troubled ocean roar1.88And break the bondage of his wonted shore;1.89A sanguine stain the silver moon o'erspread;1.90Darkness the circle of the sun invade;1.91From inmost Heaven incessant thunders roll1.92And the strong echo bound from pole to pole.