 | Flowers of the Night |  |
95
DEATH AND CHANGE.
No. I.
Pale Death, of thy sole self how art thou fair!
Fair when thou lightest on some half-blown flower,
Fair when thou comest at life's final hour,
Calm even in the noontide heat and glare,
Yea, and more kingly-proud beyond compare
When thou hast overthrown, whole as a tower,
Some lusty toiler in his day of power,
And from his seething brow uncoiled the care.
Fair when thou lightest on some half-blown flower,
Fair when thou comest at life's final hour,
Calm even in the noontide heat and glare,
Yea, and more kingly-proud beyond compare
When thou hast overthrown, whole as a tower,
Some lusty toiler in his day of power,
And from his seething brow uncoiled the care.
Not death but change, the shadow of Death, that creeps
And closes on us, causes our dismay;
The spoiler of our hope who neither sleeps
Nor rests, continuing “never in one stay;”
The wanton thief who while he nothing keeps,
Filches the sunshine from the youngest day.
And closes on us, causes our dismay;
The spoiler of our hope who neither sleeps
Nor rests, continuing “never in one stay;”
The wanton thief who while he nothing keeps,
Filches the sunshine from the youngest day.
96
No. II.
So it is Life not Death that still decreeth
The weary doom that we must wax and wane
In ceaseless change, and know no ease from pain,
No rest from toil but such as death agreeth.
This life is then the shadow which so fleeth—
The shadow we would seek to stay in vain,—
And from this shadow, of all joy the bane,
It is not Life, but Death itself that freeth.
The weary doom that we must wax and wane
In ceaseless change, and know no ease from pain,
No rest from toil but such as death agreeth.
This life is then the shadow which so fleeth—
The shadow we would seek to stay in vain,—
And from this shadow, of all joy the bane,
It is not Life, but Death itself that freeth.
But though in such surcease we see the door
To further change, the Being that has past
Forth from this house of Life we know no more;
Life is to us a shadow first and last;
Only this truth stands firmer than before:
Substance exists; else were no shadow cast.
To further change, the Being that has past
Forth from this house of Life we know no more;
Life is to us a shadow first and last;
Only this truth stands firmer than before:
Substance exists; else were no shadow cast.
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