I HAVE seen those that wore Heaven's armor worsted: I have heard Truth lie: Seen Life, beside the founts for which it thirsted, Curse God and die: I have felt the hand, whose touch was rapture, braiding Among my hair Love's choicest flowerets, and have found how fading Those garlands were: I have watched my first and holiest hopes depart, One after one: I have held the hand of Death upon my heart, And made no moan: I have seen her whom life's whole sacrifice Was made to keep, Pass coldly by me with a stranger's eyes, Yet did not weep: Now even my body fails me; and my brow Aches night and day: I am weak with over-work: how can I now Go forth and play? What! now that Youth's forgotten aspirations Are all no more, Rest there, indeed, all Youth's glad recreations, -- An untried store? Alas, what skills this heart of sad experience, This frame o'erwrought, This memory with life 's motion all at variance, This aching thought? How shall I come, with these, to follow pleasure Where others find it? Will not their sad steps mar the merriest measure, Or lag behind it? Still must the man move sadlier for the dreams That mocked the boy; And, having failed to achieve, must still, it seems, Fail to enjoy. It is no common failure, to have failed Where man hath given A whole life's effort to the task assailed -- Spent earth on heaven. If error and if failure enter here, What helps repentance? Remember this, O Lord, in thy severe Last sentence! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON GEORGE HERBERT'S BOOK, THE TEMPLE, SENT TO A GENTLEWOMAN by RICHARD CRASHAW HIS CONTENT IN THE COUNTRY by ROBERT HERRICK LUCASIA, ROSANIA, AND ORINDA PARTING AT A FOUNTAIN by KATHERINE PHILIPS WHITE HEAD by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN FRAGMENTS INTENDED FOR DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: A NIGHT-SCENE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |