Classic Poem

FOR CORINNE ROOSEVELI ROBINSON

I

I HAVE known loveliness that broke my heart:
Pale aspens through an evening wet with rain;
A dusty road whereon the rattling wain
Went creaking homeward from some crowded mart —
A road that wandered like a thing apart,
And made me dream of lost youth once again.
And what of roses with their crimson stain
Against a wall that crumbled from the start?

I drink all wonder avidly, lest I
Be absent from this world within a day.
I scarcely dare to sleep or turn away,
Fearing that Death may whisper, " Say good-bye
To this bright scene, and follow me. " Oh, why
Is life so brief? Why can we not delay?

II

There is no instant but is packed with bliss;
And every hour is crowded with delight.
I see the stars upon a breathless night,
And the great stars of my metropolis.
The moon goes whirling down the blue abyss
Of darkness; and I tremble when the white
And awful dawn comes like an anchorite
To warn us that no moment must we miss.

Dumb in my adoration I could stand
Forever at the gates of dusk and say,
" I shall remember this exultant day,
Bright as a clean sword in an angel's hand!
Each cloud I shall recall, each stretch of sand,
Each blossom in an orchard lit with May! "

III

Yet the days pass like frightened ghosts. We too
Pass in a twinkling through this world of glory.
Beauty remains, but we are transitory.
Ten thousand years from now will fall the dew,
And high in heaven still hang that arch of blue;
The rose will still repeat its perfect story,
And after generations dim and hoary,
The world will be a garden, clean and new.

Do we come back to haunt the best loved places?
Are we the wind that murmurs in the pines?
Or does a power that to the dust consigns
Our bodies, give us back fresh forms and faces,
And bid us be like actors with new lines
To ponder on earth's beauty and earth's graces?