I did not think that I should find them there <br />When I came back again; but there they stood, <br />As in the days they dreamed of when young blood <br />Was in their cheeks and women called them fair. <br />Be sure, they met me with an ancient air,— <br />And yes, there was a shop-worn brotherhood <br />About them; but the men were just as good, <br />And just as human as they ever were. <br /> <br />And you that ache so much to be sublime, <br />And you that feed yourselves with your descent, <br />What comes of all your visions and your fears? <br />Poets and kings are but the clerks of Time, <br />Tiering the same dull webs of discontent, <br />Clipping the same sad alnage of the years.<br /><br />Edwin Arlington Robinson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-clerks/
