Why look'd'st thou on the beauties of the earth So gravely in thy deep omniscience; Turn'd'st from the dews of their unclouded birth In woods where children call, and innocence Broods like a dream within a lovely face, To one wan hint, one backward glance on grief, On darken'd eyes beyond Time's fleeting grace -- Death heavy and endless of a life too brief? O love immeasurably meek that scanned, Past all earth's fickle hopes, past beauty, lust, The tottering palaces of wind and sand, Pride and vain pomp, tears, ashes, rapture, dust, The unearthly tomb whose fading stone shall keep Man, till his Saviour come, at peace asleep! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEARING LEAVES AGAIN by DAVID IGNATOW GOAL by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE COLD NIGHT by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE LITANY: 10. THE MARTYRS by JOHN DONNE VIRTUE [OR, VERTUE] by GEORGE HERBERT THE HABIT OF PERFECTION by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS A MAN BY THE NAME OF BOLUS by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |