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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WE ALL DO FAIL AS A LEAF, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We are as leaves in jewelled springtime growing
Last Line: Zeus hath for all an endless store of ill.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mimnermos


WE are as leaves in jewelled springtime growing
That open to the sunlight's quickening rays:
So joy we in our span of youth, unknowing
If God shall bring us good or evil days.

Two fates beside thee stand; the one hath sorrow,
Dull age's fruit, that other gives the boon
Of Death, for youth's fair flower hath no to-morrow,
And lives but as a sunlit afternoon.

And when thine hour is spent, and passeth by thee,
Surely to die were better than to live,
Ere grief or evil fortune come anigh thee,
And penury that hath but ill to give.

Who longs for children's love, for all his yearning
Shall haply pass to death anhungered still;
Or pain shall come, his life to anguish turning,
Zeus hath for all an endless store of ill.





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