 | Odes (1894) |  |
88
TO ONE WHO HAD WRITTEN IN DERISION OF THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
Dismiss not so, with light, hard phrase and cold,
Ev'n if it be but fond imagining,
The hope whereto so passionately cling
The dreaming generations from of old!
Not thus, to luckless men, are tidings told
Of mistress lost, or riches taken wing;
And is eternity a slighter thing,
To have or lose, than kisses or than gold?
Ev'n if it be but fond imagining,
The hope whereto so passionately cling
The dreaming generations from of old!
Not thus, to luckless men, are tidings told
Of mistress lost, or riches taken wing;
And is eternity a slighter thing,
To have or lose, than kisses or than gold?
Nay, tenderly, if needs thou must, disprove
My loftiest fancy, dash my grand desire
To see this curtain lift, these clouds retire,
And Truth, a boundless dayspring, blaze above
And round me; and to ask of my dead sire
His pardon for each word that wronged his love.
My loftiest fancy, dash my grand desire
89
And Truth, a boundless dayspring, blaze above
And round me; and to ask of my dead sire
His pardon for each word that wronged his love.
| Odes (1894) | |