Death Denies the Ideal, pp. 609-610

Opening Remarks
Death denies any possibility of the Ideal ever being established upon earth.

Earth only is there
Yet insufficient is the bright pretence
To screen their indigent and earthy make:
Earth only is there and not some heavenly source.

Yet, Death says, the bright pretence of man is insufficient to hide the poverty of its earthly expression. He denies that there is any heavenly source of the Ideal. There is only Earth, he says.

If heavens there are
If heavens there are they are veiled in their own light,
If a Truth eternal somewhere reigns unknown,
It burns in a tremendous void of God;
For truth shines far from the falsehoods of the world;
How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth
Or the eternal lodge in drifting time?

If heavens there are they are hidden in their own light. If an eternal Truth reigns somewhere unknown to earth and man it burns in a tremendous void of God. For Truth shines far and away from the falsehoods of the world. How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth or the eternal dwell in the drift and flow of time, Death remarks ironically.

How shall the Ideal tread the earth
How shall the Ideal tread earth’s dolorous soil
Where life is only a labour and a hope,
A child of Matter and by Matter fed,
A fire flaming low in Nature’s grate,
A wave that breaks upon a shore in Time,
A journey’s toilsome trudge with death for goal?

How shall the Ideal walk upon the soil of earth, asks Death, where life is only a labour and a hope. It is born from Matter and is fed by Matter. It is a low fire burning in the altar built of mud. It is a wave that breaks upon a shore in the sea of Time, a journey that is a heavy labour with death for goal.

In vain is the upward Way
The Avatars have lived and died in vain,
Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice;
In vain is seen the shining upward Way.

Then Death gives the example of the Avatars who lived and died saying that there works were vain. He adds that the thought of the sages and the voice of the prophet are also vain even as vain is the shining way of the soul’s ascension.

Earth lies unchanged
Earth lies unchanged beneath the circling sun;
She loves her fall and no omnipotence
Her mortal imperfections can erase,
Force on man’s crooked ignorance Heaven’s straight line
Or colonise a world of death with gods.

Earth remains unchanged while it circles around the sun. She loves her fallen state and no power can erase her mortal imperfection. Nor can it force the crooked mind of man upon the straight road to heavens. Nor can the world of death be colonised by the immortal gods.

Closing Remarks
Death discourages man’s efforts towards something high and beautiful and divine.