Just now and then when evenings creep
With languid feet to meet the sea,
The days go by to sleep their sleep
With all the past eternity—
When earth takes on the wondrous hue
Far shed from arcs beyond our ken,
We weave a vagrant verse or two,
Just now and then.
Just now and then, ere shadows fall
Across the threshold of the door,
And restless hands upon the wall
Retrace Ambition’s creed no more—
Apart from cankered strife and stress
That urge the stumbling feet of men,
We scrawl a verselet purposeless,
Just now and then.
Just now and then, though time glides on
From scene to scene, from year to year,
Till every “Cloth of Gold” is gone,
Till every leaf is brown and sere,
Life’s picture holds no glinting sheen,
We seek the inky shrine again
To paint our landscape gold and green,
Just now and then.
Just now and then a lilting thought
May break the reign of monotone
That claims our camp to hold its court,
That claims our chair to hold its throne.
Thrice welcome, then! on silent wing,
The friends who come from hill or glen
To overthrow life’s tyrant king,
Just now and then.
Just now and then, when skies are clear,
And winter evenings wilt and wane,
Beside the glowing hearth we hear
The echo of some old refrain—
Some half-remembered distant dream
That calls the rhymer’s halting pen
To mend a broken rhythmic theme
Just now and then.
[Decoration: Black swan]