Classic Poem

That children in their loveliness should die
Before the dawning beauty, which we know
Cannot remain, has yet begun to go;
That when a certain period has passed by,
People of genius and of faculty,
Leaving behind them some result to show,
Having performed some function, should forego
A task which younger hands can better ply
Appears entirely natural. But that one
Whose perfectness did not at all consist
In things towards framing which time could have done
Anything—whose sole office was to exist—
Should suddenly dissolve and cease to be
Calls up the hardest questions and perplexity.