Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER XII, by VICTOR GUSTAVE PLARR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER XII, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He hath a few more days to live, and we
Last Line: Of whom we know not, and who gave it birth.
Subject(s): Death; Future Life; Heaven; Mourning; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life; Paradise; Bereavement


He hath a few more days to live, and we
Go to the festal, dight with robes and flowers,
And all is goodly in this world of ours,
And 'All is Vanity,' saith he.

He hath outlived the heaviest share of days:
His gray locks flutter in the wind: his lips
Tremble and moan as in his steps he slips,
And all is Vanity always.

For him the sun, and moon, and stars are dark:
After the rain the clouds return for him.
The keepers of his soul's house quake in limb,
The strong men bow themselves adown, and hark!

The grinders cease through being few, and those
That from the windows of the spirit gaze
Are darkened, and below them, in the ways,
What time the grinding fails the portals close.

And this old man at cock-crow riseth up
To live a little o'er the long ago.
For him sweet Musick's daughters are brought low:
He careth not at all for dance or cup,

But feareth that which loometh out on high,
For in his faltering way is many a fear;
The shrilling grasshopper he scarce can bear,
And all his old desires grow near to die,

Because to-day man seeketh his long home,
And mourners go about the vacant streets:
Oh, little day of life; oh, bitter sweets!
Whence have I come and what shall I become?

Or ever the silver cord be loosen'd, or
The golden bowl be broken on the wall,
Or the full pitcher at the fountain fall,
Or ever the cistern-wheel can turn no more,

Then shall the dust return unto the earth
Even whence it came—it trod, and shall be trod,—
And the thin spirit shall go back to God
Of Whom we know not, and who gave it birth.





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