NOT for a rapture unalloyed I ask. Not for a recompense for all I miss. A banquet of the gods in heavenly bliss, A realm in whose warm sunshine I may bask, Life without discipline or earnest task Could ill repay the unfinished work of this. Nay -- e'en to clasp some long-lost Beatrice In bowers of paradise -- the mortal mask Dropped from her face now glorified and bright. But I would fain take up what here I left All crude and incomplete; would toil and strive To regain the power of which I am bereft By slow decay and death, with fuller light To aid the larger life that may survive. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SCHRECKHORN by THOMAS HARDY THE CHINESE NIGHTINGALE; A SONG IN CHINESE TAPESTRIES by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY AN ALPINE DESCENT by SAMUEL ROGERS ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 110 by PHILIP SIDNEY KNOWLEDGE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |