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1914–18
WHEN all the world would keep a matter hid, | |
| Since Truth is seldom friend to any crowd, | |
| Men write in fable, as old Æsop did, | |
| Jesting at that which none will name aloud. | |
| And this they needs must do, or it will fall | 5 |
| Unless they please they are not heard at all | |
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| When desperate Folly daily laboureth | |
| To work confusion upon all we have, | |
| When diligent Sloth demandeth Freedom’s death, | |
| And banded Fear commandeth Honour’s grave— | 10 |
| Even in that certain hour before the fall | |
| Unless men please they are not heard at all. | |
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| Needs must all please, yet some not all for need, | |
| Needs must all toil, yet some not all for gain, | |
| But that men taking pleasure may take heed, | 15 |
| Whom present toil shall snatch from later pain. | |
| Thus some have toiled but their reward was small | |
| Since, though they pleased, they were not heard at all. | |
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| This was the lock that lay upon our lips, | |
| This was the yoke that we have undergone, | 20 |
| Denying us all pleasant fellowships | |
| As in our time and generation. | |
| Our pleasures unpursued age past recall. | |
| And for our pains—we are not heard at all. | |
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| What man hears aught except the groaning guns? | 25 |
| What man heeds aught save what each instant brings? | |
| When each man’s life all imaged life outruns, | |
| What man shall pleasure in imaginings? | |
| So it hath fallen, as it was bound to fall, | |
| We are not, nor we were not, heard at all. | 30 |
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