WHEN mountains crumble and rivers all run dry, When every flower has fallen and summer fails To come again, when the sun's splendour pales, And earth with lagging footsteps seems well-nigh Spent in her annual circuit through the sky; When love is a quenched flame, and nought avails To save decrepit man, who feebly wails And lies down lost in the great grave to die; What is eternal? What escapes decay? A certain faultless, matchless, deathless line, Curving consummate. Death, Eternity, Add nought to it, from it take nought away; 'Twas all God's gift and all man's mastery, God become human and man grown divine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE COCK AND THE BULL by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY WAITING - BOTH by THOMAS HARDY WHAT THE SONNET IS by EUGENE JACOB LEE-HAMILTON THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS by CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE AT HOME IN HEAVEN by JAMES MONTGOMERY REUBEN JAMES by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE THE LINCOLN HOME by ZELLA ACKERMAN |