WHEN the white flame in us in gone, | |
And we that lost the worlds delight | |
Stiffen in darkness, left alone | |
To crumble in our separate night; | |
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When your swift hair is quiet in death, | 5 |
And through the lips corruption thrust | |
Has stilled the labour of my breath | |
When we are dust, when we are dust! | |
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Not dead, not undesirous yet, | |
Still sentient, still unsatisfied, | 10 |
Well ride the air, and shine, and flit, | |
Around the places where we died, | |
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And dance as dust before the sun, | |
And light of foot, and unconfined, | |
Hurry from road to road, and run | 15 |
About the errands of the wind. | |
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And every mote, on earth or air, | |
Will speed and gleam, down later days, | |
And like a secret pilgrim fare | |
By eager and invisible ways, | 20 |
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Nor ever rest, nor ever lie, | |
Till, beyond thinking, out of view, | |
One mote of all the dust thats I | |
Shall meet one atom that was you. | |
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Then in some garden hushed from wind, | 25 |
Warm in a sunsets afterglow, | |
The lovers in the flowers will find | |
A sweet and strange unquiet grow | |
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Upon the peace; and, past desiring, | |
So high a beauty in the air, | 30 |
And such a light, and such a quiring, | |
And such a radiant ecstasy there, | |
|
Theyll know not if its fire, or dew, | |
Or out of earth, or in the height, | |
Singing, or flame, or scent, or hue, | 35 |
Or two that pass, in light, to light, | |
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Out of the garden, higher, higher.
| |
But in that instant they shall learn | |
The shattering ecstasy of our fire, | |
And the weak passionless hearts will burn | 40 |
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And faint in that amazing glow, | |
Until the darkness close above; | |
And they will knowpoor fools, theyll know! | |
One moment, what it is to love. | |