 | The Last Ballad and Other Poems |  |
142
THE PRICE
Terrible is the price
Of beginning anew, of birth;
For Death has loaded dice.
Of beginning anew, of birth;
For Death has loaded dice.
Men hurry and hide like mice;
But they cannot evade the Earth,
And Life, Death's fancy price.
But they cannot evade the Earth,
And Life, Death's fancy price.
A blossom once or twice,
Love lights on Summer's hearth;
But Winter loads the dice.
Love lights on Summer's hearth;
But Winter loads the dice.
In jangling shackles of ice,
Ragged and bleeding, Mirth
Pays the Piper's price.
Ragged and bleeding, Mirth
Pays the Piper's price.
143
The dance is done in a trice:
Death belts his bony girth;
And struts, and rattles his dice.
Death belts his bony girth;
And struts, and rattles his dice.
Let Virtue play or Vice,
Beside his sombre firth
Life is the lowest price
Death wins with loaded dice.
Beside his sombre firth
Life is the lowest price
Death wins with loaded dice.
| The Last Ballad and Other Poems | |