Night on our lives, ah me, how surely has it fallen!

To mingle with the dust which covers thee;If in this latest dawn of evil yearsMy rebel eyes withhold their sympathy;If of a truth my thoughts so barren beOf their old griefs, so numb to tendernessThat they nor hear nor taste nor feel nor seeThe sweetness of thy presence in this place;If I now drowse,–’tis that…

In sable robes and grief’s mute pageantry,For loves that died ere they had ever been,Or whether on the edge of joys set keen,While all the stage with laughter is agog,Death stepping forward with an altered mienPulls off his mask, and speaks the epilogue?Life is a play acted by dying men,Where, if its heroes seem to…

A fair–faced frightened boy with eyes of truthScared at the world yet angry at its laws,Plotting all plots, a blushing CatalineBetrayed by his own cheeks, a misanthropeIn love with all things human and divine,The very fool of fortune and high hope,You would deny you knew me. Oh, the daysOf our absurd first manhood, rich in…

Is as a living thing with power to wound.The white sand quivers, and the footfall muteOf the slow camels strikes but gives no sound,As though they walked on flame, not solid ground.‘Tis noon, and the beasts’ shadows even have fledBack to their feet, and there is fire aroundAnd fire beneath, and overhead the sun.Pitiful heaven!…

And mine has been a battle. Thou didst storeThy soul’s wealth sternly to a sure increase,And thy revenue’s much still swelled to more.Thou squanderedst nothing on the pomp of war,The lust of glory. No mad covetous eyesWere thine upon thy neighbour’s lands afar,His wealth, his wife, his fenceless vanities.Thou wert a brave, just man, whom…

And fate has struck us. Wherefore do we cry?We prayed for liberty, and now too lateFind liberty is this, to say “good–bye.”The Winter which we loved not has gone by,And Spring is come. The gardens, which were bareWhen we first wandered through them, you and I,The prisoners of our own vain wishes, areNow full of…