IF life be bitter and if death be sweet Clasp hands with darkness, let thy lips Kiss out the sunlight, let thy feet Move down the shadowy eclipse: Too much of light there is, too much of day, Too little silence and too little dark; Deeper than life the flood flows on alway. Quench out thy light, tread out the tiny spark. If death be bitter and if life be sweet, Clasp hands with daylight, let thy hair Be soft with flowers, and let thy feet Move blithely down the dancer's stair: Too little light, alas, too little day Will bide for us on phantom wings of flight Before the sweeping onset of the gray Dim shadow-hordes, the Mongols of the night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VLAMERTINGHE: PASSING THE CHATEAU, JULY 1917 by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN PHILOCTETES: PHILOCTETES CALLS FOR DEATH by AESCHYLUS AUSTERITY OF POETRY by MATTHEW ARNOLD A POEM FOR THE SEFIROT AS WHEEL OF LIGHT by NAFTALI BACHARACH COMOS by ADRA CAROLINE BATCHELDER IN AN AEROPLANE by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE POETICAL INSCRIPTION FOR AN ALTAR OF INDEPENDENCE by ROBERT BURNS |