Hopes, What Are They?--Beads Of Morning

Hopes, what are they?--Beads of morning Strung on slender blades of grass; Or a spider's web adorning In a strait and treacherous pass.

What are fears but voices airy? Whispering harm where harm is not; And deluding the unwary Till the fatal bolt is shot!

What is glory?--in the socket See how dying tapers fare! What is pride?--a whizzing rocket That would emulate a star.

What is friendship?--do not trust her, Nor the vows which she has made; Diamonds dart their brightest lustre From a palsy-shaken head.

What is truth?--a staff rejected; Duty?--an unwelcome clog; Joy?--a moon by fits reflected In a swamp or watery bog;

Bright, as if through ether steering, To the Traveller's eye it shone: He hath hailed it re-appearing-- And as quickly it is gone;

Such is Joy--as quickly hidden, Or mis-shapen to the sight, And by sullen weeds forbidden To resume its native light.

What is youth?--a dancing billow, (Winds behind, and rocks before!) Age?--a drooping, tottering willow On a flat and lazy shore.

What is peace?--when pain is over, And love ceases to rebel, Let the last faint sigh discover That precedes the passing knell!

Compare Carlyle's Cui Bono--

What is Hope? A smiling rainbow Children follow through the wet; 'Tis not here, still yonder, yonder: Never urchin found it yet.

What is Life? A thawing iceboard On a sea with sunny shore;-- Gay we sail; it melts beneath us; We are sunk, and seen no more.

What is Man? A foolish baby, Vainly strives, and fights, and frets; Demanding all, deserving nothing;-- One small grave is what he gets.

See his Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i. p. 352 (edition 1857).--ED.