 | Vigil and vision |  |
OCULO RETORTO.
IF I might turn the river of the yearsBack to its fountain-head and at the spring
Of the Prime Cause drink life's requickening,
I would not seek from the consenting spheres
Lost youth, with all its idle smiles and tears,
Nor with dead Love prevail again to sing
His syren songs of sempiternal Spring,
Nor crave return of manhood's hopes and fears.
I would but ask to draw yet once again
The full fresh breath of frank and fearless life,
To feel once more, now time is on the wane,
Unmarred by any sense of doubt or strife,
The innocent, the ignorant disdain,
The child-unconsciousness of joy and pain.
| Vigil and vision | |