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44
NOT NOW
Few are the days of Spring,
And short the April hours:
We have no time to sing
Or dance, between the showers:
And short the April hours:
We have no time to sing
Or dance, between the showers:
We have no time to stray
Along the woodland lanes
And plan our little day
Of honours and of gains:
Along the woodland lanes
And plan our little day
Of honours and of gains:
For, ere the sun be high,
Or ever noon has come,
So lurid grows the sky
That we must hasten home—
Or ever noon has come,
So lurid grows the sky
That we must hasten home—
To find our hearthstone void,
To see our bright estate
By one strong shaft destroy'd:
And we are desolate.
To see our bright estate
By one strong shaft destroy'd:
And we are desolate.
Ah yes! It is not here,
It is not thus nor now,
While we beside the bier
Lie stunn'd and spent and low,—
It is not thus nor now,
While we beside the bier
Lie stunn'd and spent and low,—
45
It is not thus, that we,
Or such as we, can tell
How true those words may be—
He doeth all things well.
Or such as we, can tell
How true those words may be—
He doeth all things well.
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