I have had all: over and in that all, Like the soul's speck of fire in a man's eye, One little mote did crawl And spread and fly, till wide eternity Straightened itself to measure out a pall Where I might lie. Life tempted me, as the great hungry sea Calls with inevitable voice to youth: Why should I turn and flee? Nor fear, nor ruth, nor the still voice of truth Kept the red wine or bitter lees from me: I lived, forsooth! All things of earth in sequence of their birth Sprang to my fevered lips and met disdain, Mad in its angry mirth. Love's honeyed gain was the bee's patient pain, Wrought for no worth. I have had all. I had it all in vain! As in the cup where the brown night-moths sup, Under the honey, under the perfume, One little spot looks up, And through that bloom foretells the seed-time's gloom, So my unsated thirst in each drained cup Found lurking room. Yet I know God hung over me this rod That I should follow where two bleeding feet Before this track have trod: And, as earth's sweet is finite, incomplete, He satisfies me whose infinite, complete, Fills star and sod. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WRITTEN FOR MY SON, AND SPOKEN BY HIM AT HIS FIRST PUTTING ON BREECHES by MARY BARBER A GARDEN SONG by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS by FRANCIS HOPKINSON CONFESSIONS by ROBERT BROWNING FEARS AND SCRUPLES by ROBERT BROWNING LINES WRITTEN ON VISITING A SCENE IN ARGYLESHIRE by THOMAS CAMPBELL |