'Tis evanescence that endures; The loveliness that dies the soonest has the longest life. The rainbow is a momentary thing, The afterglows are ashes while we gaze, And those soft flames of song That burn amid the hawthorn-scented bushes of the May Expire before the sense can fix them. The motes of moonlight steal across the tender dusk, And faery flutings wander from the haunted hills, And tremble and are gone, All bloom and fire, All light and color, scent and sound -- All passion, which is kin to these -- Die almost in the instant of their birth. They die, and yet they live forever, For by their very poignance they are thrust Deeper into the texture of that eternal stuff Which is the soul, And grow to unity with it; and there The loveliness which dies the soonest always lives. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STUDY FOR A GEOGRAPHICAL TRAIL; 4. NEW JERSEY by CLARENCE MAJOR WINTER SONG by KATHERINE MANSFIELD DOMESDAY BOOK: BARRETT BAYS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CALIFORNIA CITY LANDSCAPE by CARL SANDBURG FACADE: 24. AN OLD WOMAN LAMENTS IN SPRINGTIME by EDITH SITWELL |