 | Vigil and vision |  |
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.
SMALL is our age for better and for worse:Small in its good, as in its wickedness;
Small in its aim, in its performance less:
Small is its benison and small its curse;
Its art is small and smaller yet its verse.
Small are its men and women, strife and stress,
And small its thoughts, hopes, fears, wish, carefulness;
Nought hath it great, save vanity and purse.
So, with its little sweets, its little strife,
Its little goods and ills, its little spell
Shall it outfool; and when the term assigned
Accomplished is, of this its paper life,
Once flared away in Time's unpitying wind,
Leave but a little ash and an ill smell.
| Vigil and vision | |