Classic Poem

We said on that first day, we said and swore
That self should be no more,
That we were risen, that we would wholly be
For love and liberty;
And in the exhilaration of that oath
We cast off spite and sloth
And laboured for an hour, till we began,
Man after piteous man,
To lose the splendour, to forget the dream
And leave our noble theme,
To find again our lusts and villainies
And seek a baser prize;
This we have done and what is left undone
Cries out beneath the sun.
How glad a dawn fades thus in foggy night,
Where not a star shines bright!