Such figures if they succeed are beautiful because for a moment we brighten in a blaze of rhymes and yet they always fail and must fail and give way to other poems in the endless approximations of what we feel Hopeless it is hopeless Only the wheel endures It spins and spins winding the was the is the willbe out of nothing and thus we are Thus on the wheel we touch each to each a part of the great determining reality How much we give to one another Perhaps our art succeeds after all our small song done in the faith of lovers who endlessly change heart for heart as the gift of being Come let us sing against death. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LAST LINES OF THOMAS INGOLDSBY by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM A VOYAGE TO CYTHERA by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE THE BOROUGH: LETTER 22. POOR OF THE BOROUGH. PETER GRIMES by GEORGE CRABBE GEORGE WASHINGTON by JOHN HALL INGHAM INTROSPECTIVE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI EPIGRAM by DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS |