Time has passed, since
Shadows trembled to watch
Twilight sweep the earth
For the phantoms to trip and mince.
A dark breeze the forest-heart stirs;
Yet merry the face of the sky--
Twinkling in joy
Its innumerable eyes, the stars.
Hushed the music within;
Pleasure's silver laugh, dead;
Thought lost in reverie--
Reverie receding into nothing.
The taper of dreams flickers
Out, leaving the soul in dusk
By the altar of love,
Flower-laden as the night with stars.
51
"Nothing endures," you said;
"None can die," quoth love;
"In the firmament of loving
No stars set, no meteors fall."
Yet, nothing endures, nothing,
Naught but dust;
Naught but regret and vain desire
The twin monuments of life,
Reared by time, by wrecking
All that we seek and find.
Its relentless waves of years
Break even the impregnable wall of memory
That thought builds
On the embankment of hope.
Pass all away, even we who loved,
Dreamt as none dreamt before--
Borne by the tide of life--
But, lo! from our defeated destiny
Rise our seeds reared by time
Consecrated to love and living!
52