SPRING, and the light and sound of things on earth Requickening, all within our green sea's girth; A time of passage or a time of birth Fourscore years since as this year, first and last. The sun is all about the world we see, The breath and strength of very spring; and we Live, love, and feed on our own hearts; but he Whose heart fed mine has passed into the past. Past, all things born with sense and blood and breath; The flesh hears nought that now the spirit saith. If death be like as birth and birth as death, The first was fair -- more fair should be the last. Fourscore years since, and come but one month more The count were perfect of his moral score Whose sail went seaward yesterday from shore To cross the last of many an unsailed sea. Light, love and labor up to life's last height, These three were stars unsetting in his sight Even as the sun is life and heat and light And sets not nor is dark when dark are we. The life, the spirit, and the work were one That here -- ah, who shall say, that here are done Nor I, that know not; father, not thy son, For all the darkness of the night and sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HIDE AND SEEK by SARA TEASDALE PRISONED IN WINDSOR, HE RECOUNTETH HIS PLEASURE THERE PASSED by HENRY HOWARD THE QUAKER WIDOW by BAYARD TAYLOR PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 91 by EDWIN ARNOLD Γενεθλιακον by JOSEPH BEAUMONT PILLBOX by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN COMRADES AND LOVERS, REST NOT by NELSON ANTRIM CRAWFORD OLD BEN by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE SUNRISE IN THE HILLS OF SATSUMA by MARY MCNEIL SCOTT FENOLLOSA |