NOT dust to dust, not ashes to ashes, nay! Beauty only in beauty passes away. But often the change Finds the heart ill-prepared and all seems strange. The steel of newness strikes the flint of trust And there revolt flashes Blue, beautiful flames; Something is ashes? Somebody dust? Ah, the dear, dead names! The sweet, long love that bore through bud and leaf Melts in a gradually softening grief. Blowing from regions far and strange The clouds of change Muffle the pinnacles of longing till Grace averts her gaze, Evil's no longer ill. Tears are so mortal! Let the heart say 'Beauty only in beauty passes away.' Through what occasions, who will know, Through what heart-seasons the brown world will blow Plunging the starry spray To our new Olivet? The hoofs of the soft-eyed does Crush dandelions in play, The mountain violets smother in mountain snows -- Which shall the heart regret, The snow or the violet? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE'S MIRACLE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE SLAVE TRADE: VIEW FROM THE MIDDLE PASSAGE by CLARENCE MAJOR TO HELEN KELLER - HUMANITARIAN, SOCIAL DEMOCRAT, GREAT SOUL by EDWIN MARKHAM SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JONAS KEENE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS BUCOLIC COMEDY: KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR MAID by EDITH SITWELL |