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1902
THIS is our lot if we live so long and labour unto the end— | |
| That we outlive the impatient years and the much too patient friend: | |
| And because we know we have breath in our mouth and think we have thoughts in our head, | |
| We shall assume that we are alive, whereas we are really dead. | |
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| We shall not acknowledge that old stars fade or brighter planets arise | 5 |
| (That the sere bush buds or the desert blooms or the ancient well-head dries), | |
| Or any new compass wherewith new men adventure ’neath new skies. | |
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| We shall lift up the ropes that constrainèd our youth, to bind on our children’s hands; | |
| We shall call to the water below the bridges to return and replenish our lands; | |
| We shall harness horses (Death’s own pale horses) and scholarly plough the sands. | 10 |
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| We shall lie down in the eye of the sun for lack of a light on our way— | |
| We shall rise up when the day is done and chirrup, “Behold, it is day!” | |
| We shall abide till the battle is won ere we amble into the fray. | |
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| We shall peck out and discuss and dissect, and evert and extrude to our mind, | |
| The flaccid tissues of long-dead issues offensive to God and mankind— | 15 |
| (Precisely like vultures over an ox that the Army has left behind). | |
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| We shall make walk preposterous ghosts of the glories we once created— | |
| Immodestly smearing from muddled palettes amazing pigments mismated— | |
| And our friends will weep when we ask them with boasts if our natural force be abated. | |
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| The Lamp of our Youth will be utterly out, but we shall subsist on the smell of it; | 20 |
| And whatever we do, we shall fold our hands and suck our gums and think well of it. | |
| Yes, we shall be perfectly pleased with our work, and that is the Perfectest Hell of it! | |
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| This is our lot if we live so long and listen to those who love us— | |
| That we are shunned by the people about and shamed by the Powers above us. | |
| Wherefore be free of your harness betimes; but, being free, be assured, | 25 |
| That he who hath not endured to the death, from his birth he hath never endured! | |
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