Classic Poem

Naught can cheer the dark existence
Which we may not fly from yet;
But with Fate's severe assistance,
Though we live, we may forget.

For while woe is broad and patent,
Filling, clouding all the sight,
Ever meliora latent ,
And a dawn will end the night.

Meliora latent ever;
Better than the seen lies hid;
Time the curtain's dusk will sever,
And will raise the casket's lid.

This our hope for all that's mortal,
And we too shall burst our bond;
Death keeps watch beside the portal,
But 'tis Life that dwells beyond.

Still the final hour befriends us,
Nature's direst though it be;
And the fiercest pang that rends us,
Does its worst — and sets us free.

Then from earth's immediate sorrow
Toward the skyey future turn;
And from its unseen to-morrow,
Fill to-day's exhausted urn.