The Way of the Winepress By John Payne: With an Introduction by Thomas Wright |
 |
EXCEPT A CORN OF WHEAT.... |
 |
|
|
 | The Way of the Winepress |  |
EXCEPT A CORN OF WHEAT....
TO crush for sustinence the stubborn clods,To wish and want or (yet more piteous!)
Find, the wish filled, we would not have it thus;
To cower and tremble 'neath the Furies' rods,
To wrestle with the unrelenting Gods
And children to beget, who shall, like us,
Fight the same battle unvictorious
And lie at last beneath the daisied sods;
Such is man's lot. Small wonder that he flies
For solace still to dreams of lands of light
Beyond the darkness; — dreams, alas! in vain,
Since in the furrow needs the golden grain
Must rot, ere, in its semblance, from Death's night,
Alike, yet not the same, new sheaves arise.
| The Way of the Winepress | |