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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE INEXORABLE LAW by WILLIAM WATSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: WE, TOO, SHALL PASS; WE TOO, SHALL DISAPPEAR
Last Line: "WHOSE PEACE COMES OF HER TEMPESTS, AND HER TOILS."

WE, too, shall pass; we, too, shall disappear,
Ev'n as the mighty nations that have waned
And perished. Not more surely are ordained
The crescence and the cadence of the year,
High-hearted June, October drooped and sere,
Than this gray consummation. We have reigned
Augustly; let our part be so sustained
That in far morns, whose voice we shall not hear,
It may be said: "This Mistress of the sword
And conquering prow, this Empire swoln with spoils,
Yet served the Human Cause, yet strove for Man;
Hers was the purest greatness we record;
We whose ingathered sheaves her tilth foreran:
Whose Peace comes of her tempests, and her toils."



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