Elegia

"Far buon tempo e trionfare"

"I have put my days and dreams out of mind' For all their hurry and their weary fret Availed me little. But another kind Of leaf that's fast in some more sombre wind, Is man on life, and all our tenuous courses Wind and unwind as vainly. * * * * * I have lived long, and died, Yea I have been dead, right often, And have seen one thing: The sun, while he is high, doth light our wrong And none can break the darkness with a song.

To-day's the cup. To-morrow is not ours: Nay, by our strongest bands we bind her not, Nor all our fears and our anxieties Turn her one leaf or hold her scimitar.

The deed blots out the thought And many thoughts, the vision; And right's a compass with as many poles As there are points in her circumference, 'Tis vain to seek to steer all courses even, And all things save sheer right are vain enough. The blade were vain to grow save toward the sun, And vain th' attempt to hold her green forever.

All things in season and no thing o'er long! Love and desire and gain and good forgetting, Thou canst not stay the wheel, hold none too long!