 | The Last Ballad and Other Poems |  |
165
II
The Fool Worldly WisemanThe Fool
In haste, ere my senses wither,
I travel and search the night:
Whence am I? what am I? whither?
I must have fullest light.
Worldly Wiseman
That is your cry! Take heed;
Look to your steps, I say.
Return, for now, indeed,
Soul-traps beset your way:
Some man-devouring creed
Will seize you for a prey—
Some engine, baited bright
With immortality
Will drag you out of sight
And rend you: know that he
Who must have fullest light
Plots for his enemy.
Look to your steps, I say.
Return, for now, indeed,
Soul-traps beset your way:
166
Will seize you for a prey—
Some engine, baited bright
With immortality
Will drag you out of sight
And rend you: know that he
Who must have fullest light
Plots for his enemy.
In youth we hope; with age
The bargain seems unjust;
But yet though none engage
For Death's cold dust to dust—
The fixed, the only wage—
We take our doom on trust.
The bargain seems unjust;
But yet though none engage
For Death's cold dust to dust—
The fixed, the only wage—
We take our doom on trust.
Such is the gentle rede
That prudent men embrace—
No fierce, enchanting creed
To live for in disgrace,
But good enough at need
In any market-place.
That prudent men embrace—
167
To live for in disgrace,
But good enough at need
In any market-place.
Stare at the darkness, shout
Your frenzied how and why,
No ghost will whet your doubt,
No echo give reply;
Only the world will flout,
And fortune pass you by.
Your frenzied how and why,
No ghost will whet your doubt,
No echo give reply;
Only the world will flout,
And fortune pass you by.
The Fool
Let chance sway hither and thither,
And the world be wrong or right,
Here, now, ere my sinews wither,
I wrestle with infinite night:
Whence am I? what am I? whither?
I will have fullest light.
| The Last Ballad and Other Poems | |