While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening <br /> to empire <br />And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the <br /> mass hardens, <br />I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots <br /> to make earth. <br />Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and deca- <br /> dence; and home to the mother. <br /> <br />You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stub- <br /> bornly long or suddenly <br />A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: <br /> shine, perishing republic. <br />But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thick- <br /> ening center; corruption <br />Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there <br /> are left the mountains. <br />And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, <br /> insufferable master. <br />There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught--they say-- <br /> God, when he walked on earth.<br /><br />Robinson Jeffers<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shine-perishing-republic/
