 | Song and Story |  |
120
CYNICISM.
From those who seize in sensual haste
Life's best of fruitage, day by day,
Who eat with greed, revile the taste,
Then cast the empty rind away;
Life's best of fruitage, day by day,
Who eat with greed, revile the taste,
Then cast the empty rind away;
From those who crave the moment's ease
To miss the lifetime's larger cheer,
How false, how tame, from such as these,
How slight of worth, the ironic sneer!
To miss the lifetime's larger cheer,
How false, how tame, from such as these,
How slight of worth, the ironic sneer!
Off grave philosophy they steal
The classic robe her stature vaunts,
Dress her anew and praise with zeal
The bells and motley that she flaunts.
The classic robe her stature vaunts,
Dress her anew and praise with zeal
The bells and motley that she flaunts.
They carp at wisdom's gathered lore;
They call her humblest maxims vain;
Disdaining dogma, they ignore
The dogmas of their own disdain.
They call her humblest maxims vain;
Disdaining dogma, they ignore
The dogmas of their own disdain.
121
Ah, fatuous idlers, if ye will,
Your lamps of banquet glitter bright,
But over them burn lovelier still
The pale pavilions of the night!
Your lamps of banquet glitter bright,
But over them burn lovelier still
The pale pavilions of the night!
Go, seek the man whose eyes have traced
Experience to her utmost ends,
Whose long vicissitudes have faced
Love's treachery and the loss of friends;
Experience to her utmost ends,
Whose long vicissitudes have faced
Love's treachery and the loss of friends;
Whose years have tested, while they fled,
How wrong may thrive with right low-flung;
Whose tears have dropped upon his dead,
Hot from the anguish whence they sprung;
How wrong may thrive with right low-flung;
Whose tears have dropped upon his dead,
Hot from the anguish whence they sprung;
The man whom life has racked and worn,
Yet mingled blessings with its blows—
Pierced by the poignance of its thorn,
Yet given the richness of its rose;
Yet mingled blessings with its blows—
Pierced by the poignance of its thorn,
Yet given the richness of its rose;
The man of temperate mind and tongue,
Who fairly met all change and chance,
Nor soothed caprice with pleasures wrung
From unconsenting circumstance!
Who fairly met all change and chance,
Nor soothed caprice with pleasures wrung
From unconsenting circumstance!
122
Go, seek this man, though cares enslave
The last slow term of his career,
And ask him if he dares to waive
The mighty problem with a sneer!
The last slow term of his career,
And ask him if he dares to waive
The mighty problem with a sneer!
Or if, through hours of toil and ache,
Has fluttered no mysterious breath,
Faint as a dream, yet strong to shake
The bastions of the gates of death!
Has fluttered no mysterious breath,
Faint as a dream, yet strong to shake
The bastions of the gates of death!
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