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DEAD MEN AND THE MOON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fortunate they that take advice
Last Line: What shadows undertake.


Fortunate they that take advice
Of dead men and the moon,
For dead men's bones are loaded dice,
The moon a bright doubloon;
And gamblers poor can stake a price
To make a Croesus swoon.

If in the fury of the play
The moon should disappear,
Our dead men clink behind the day
Until at dusk we peer
To see them heave her through the grey
And roll her glory near.

Florin of Dreams! O many a night
The dusty dice we shake;
The while the horror sinks in flight
And brighter grows the stake, -
The future that shall be, despite
What shadows undertake.




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