 | Carol and Cadence |  |
POLARITIES.
If life were love
And joy came down with men from Heaven above
To dwell and ease them of the eternal stress,
Think you that humankind
Were better, lovesomer
Than now it is, in this our purblind press
Of loveless striving, driven before the wind
Of need to all excess
Of hate and greed by Fate's relentless spur?
Not so. Were life all love and gladness, we,
As hate now, love would flee
And venture all, despair, as pleasance now, to find.
And joy came down with men from Heaven above
To dwell and ease them of the eternal stress,
Think you that humankind
Were better, lovesomer
Than now it is, in this our purblind press
Of loveless striving, driven before the wind
Of need to all excess
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Not so. Were life all love and gladness, we,
As hate now, love would flee
And venture all, despair, as pleasance now, to find.
If fear to hope
Transmuted were and men no more to grope
Were in the darkling galleries doomed of doubt,
Think you, the world would be
A happier then than now,
When for bare life, against the rabble rout
Of pains and cares, from which we may not flee,
We needs, year in, year out,
Must battle with strained sense and bursting brow?
Not so. If such a case might happen, men
Would die for gladness then,
As now, in this old world, they live for misery.
Transmuted were and men no more to grope
Were in the darkling galleries doomed of doubt,
Think you, the world would be
A happier then than now,
When for bare life, against the rabble rout
Of pains and cares, from which we may not flee,
We needs, year in, year out,
Must battle with strained sense and bursting brow?
Not so. If such a case might happen, men
Would die for gladness then,
As now, in this old world, they live for misery.
Even as of shade
The counterpart to be hath light been made,
So joy of sorrow, pleasance of annoy
And justice of unright
Are natural complements
And mates inseparable. Repose would cloy,
Were labour not, to teach us its delight:
There comes no spark of joy
But from the cease of pain unto our sense.
Love's self is but the counterpart of hate,
As peace is of debate;
And nothing here exists but by its opposite.
The counterpart to be hath light been made,
So joy of sorrow, pleasance of annoy
And justice of unright
Are natural complements
And mates inseparable. Repose would cloy,
Were labour not, to teach us its delight:
There comes no spark of joy
But from the cease of pain unto our sense.
Love's self is but the counterpart of hate,
As peace is of debate;
And nothing here exists but by its opposite.
As without night
Day might not be nor darkness without light,
As Summer Autumn makes and Winter Spring,
As, without snow-time, May
No seeds would have for bloom,
So joy with us, except for sorrowing,
Might not abide nor love our cares allay,
Except hate were, to bring
Its radiance out with keen-contrasting gloom.
Faith, save by unfaith shaded, none might see;
And still in Life must be
Unto the Eternal Yes opposed the Eternal Nay.
Day might not be nor darkness without light,
As Summer Autumn makes and Winter Spring,
As, without snow-time, May
No seeds would have for bloom,
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Might not abide nor love our cares allay,
Except hate were, to bring
Its radiance out with keen-contrasting gloom.
Faith, save by unfaith shaded, none might see;
And still in Life must be
Unto the Eternal Yes opposed the Eternal Nay.
| Carol and Cadence | |