I YOU who are wise to-day, What of your knowledge when Life's little play Is ended, and the curtain rustles down -- What of your wisdom then, your great renown? Make me not wise, like you; I envy neither sage nor prophet Jew. Beggared, each journeyed here, and sought for fame, And lo! went forth as poor as when he came! II I did not know the nightingale could fling Into one song the whole wild soul of Spring; I did not know -- until I heard him sing. I did not know that Love held all of bliss -- Yea, all that ever was, and all that is; I did not know -- until I felt your kiss! III O in that hour when both of us are dead, When all of Life and Love at last is said, Will some red rose bloom o'er our graves to tell how our hearts bled? Or will a lily, in the starlit night, Lift its pale wonder and its waxen light, To tell the world how our poor hearts loved with a love most white? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO MY READERS by ALEXANDER ANDERSON KING EDWARD THE THIRD by WILLIAM BLAKE ASPIRATIONS: 2 by MATHILDE BLIND AFTER A TEMPEST by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE VIRGIN MARTYR by ADA CAMBRIDGE THE LAST REVEL by CH'EN TZU-ANG |