SEVEN SONNETS ON THE THOUGHT OF DEATH: 2 by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH

THAT there are better things within the womb
Of Nature than to our unworthy view
She grants for a possession, may be true:
The cycle of the birthplace and the tomb
Fulfils at least the order and the doom
Of earth, that has not ordinance to do
More than to withdraw and to renew,
To show one moment and the next resume:
The law that we return from whence we came,
May for the flowers, beasts, and most men remain;
If for ourselves, we ask not nor complain:
But for a being that demands the name
We highest deem -- a Person and a Soul --
It troubles us that this should be the whole.

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