The Collected Works of William Morris With Introductions by his Daughter May Morris |
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 | The Collected Works of William Morris |  |
They praised the tale, and for awhile they talked
Of other tales of treasure-seekers balked,
And shame and loss for men insatiate stored,
Nitocris' tomb, the Niblungs' fatal hoard,
The serpent-guarded treasures of the dead;
Then of how men would be rememberèd
When they are gone; and more than one could tell
Of what unhappy things therefrom befell;
Or how by folly men have gained a name:
A name indeed, not hallowed by the fame
Of any deeds remembered: and some thought:
“Strange hopes and fears for what shall be but nought
To dead men! better it would be to give
What things they may, while on the earth they live,
Unto the earth, and from the bounteous earth
To take their pay of sorrow or of mirth,
Hatred or love, and get them on their way;
And let the teeming earth fresh troubles make
For other men, and ever for their sake
Use what they left, when they are gone from it.”
Of other tales of treasure-seekers balked,
And shame and loss for men insatiate stored,
Nitocris' tomb, the Niblungs' fatal hoard,
The serpent-guarded treasures of the dead;
Then of how men would be rememberèd
When they are gone; and more than one could tell
Of what unhappy things therefrom befell;
Or how by folly men have gained a name:
A name indeed, not hallowed by the fame
Of any deeds remembered: and some thought:
“Strange hopes and fears for what shall be but nought
To dead men! better it would be to give
86
Unto the earth, and from the bounteous earth
To take their pay of sorrow or of mirth,
Hatred or love, and get them on their way;
And let the teeming earth fresh troubles make
For other men, and ever for their sake
Use what they left, when they are gone from it.”
But while amid such musings they did sit,
Dark night being come, men lighted up the hall,
And the chief man for minstrelsy did call,
And other talk their dull thoughts chased away,
Nor did they part till night was mixed with day.
Dark night being come, men lighted up the hall,
And the chief man for minstrelsy did call,
And other talk their dull thoughts chased away,
Nor did they part till night was mixed with day.
| The Collected Works of William Morris | |