CANCELLED the fair-planned life Brooded on, talked over with the wife; The visionary quiet home Of expectation; The task that, thought of, gave elation! Vanished, like flashing foam, All, all that set a-dance the inner sea! Hopes every man now halt, or maimed, or blind, Took out with him to face the enemy, Comes back without! Yea, now usurps his mind A crestless, colourless monotony Of mere dwarf ripples that through years to come Alone shall differentiate His will, so straitly limited, From those, quite still, perhaps more fortunate, Who grasp the incalculable, being dead. |