As a sigh! As sweet and as sad; A fugitive heritage they: A moment to grieve and be glad: Our years that are passing away! A sigh, and a smile, and a sigh: A balance of sorrow and mirth: A birth, and a break, and to die And vanish forever from earth. To wake, and to sleep, and to wake: To sleep, and to wake, and to sleep: A bubble to rise and to break And melt in the measureless deep! Our years! but a gleam and a gloom; A twilight with twilight to blend: A flash to the shadows illume That childhood and age comprehend! Our years! but a gloom and a gleam; A splendor that is and is not: A dream that is dreamed of a dream: A tale that is told and forgot! O what then is being? and why Is time with mortality rife? If man is to breathe but to die, Then what is the meaning of life? Our God, 'tis from Thee we are come: For Being immortal we yearn; Not here but beyond is our home, And there with our years we return. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DRIVING INTO LARAMIE by JAMES GALVIN NOTES FOR THE FIRST LINE OF A SPANISH POEM by JAMES GALVIN TO W.E.B. DUBOIS - SCHOLAR by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BEAUTY THAT IS NEVER OLD by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON THE EXPANDED COMPOSITION by CLARENCE MAJOR RICHARD BOOTH TO HIS SON JUNIUS BRUTUS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |