You promise heavens free from strife, <br />Pure truth, and perfect change of will; <br />But sweet, sweet is this human life, <br />So sweet, I fain would breathe it still; <br />Your chilly stars I can forgo, <br />This warm kind world is all I know. <br /> <br />You say there is no substance here, <br />One great reality above: <br />Back from that void I shrink in fear, <br />And child-like hide myself in love: <br />Show me what angels feel. Till then <br />I cling, a mere weak man, to men. <br /> <br />You bid me lift my mean desires <br />From faltering lips and fitful veins <br />To sexless souls, ideal quires, <br />Unwearied voices, wordless strains: <br />My mind with fonder welcome owns <br />One dear dead friend's remember'd tones. <br /> <br />Forsooth the present we must give <br />To that which cannot pass away; <br />All beauteous things for which we live <br />By laws of time and space decay. <br />But O, the very reason why <br />I clasp them, is because they die.<br /><br />William Johnson Cory<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mimnermus-in-church/
