Time and the Earth - <br />The old Father and Mother - <br />Their teeming accomplished, <br />Their purpose fulfilled, <br />Close with a smile <br />For a moment of kindness, <br />Ere for the winter <br />They settle to sleep. <br /> <br />Failing yet gracious, <br />Slow pacing, soon homing, <br />A patriarch that strolls <br />Through the tents of his children, <br />The Sun, as he journeys <br />His round on the lower <br />Ascents of the blue, <br />Washes the roofs <br />And the hillsides with clarity; <br />Charms the dark pools <br />Till they break into pictures; <br />Scatters magnificent <br />Alms to the beggar trees; <br />Touches the mist-folk, <br />That crowd to his escort, <br />Into translucencies <br />Radiant and ravishing: <br />As with the visible <br />Spirit of Summer <br />Gloriously vaporised, <br />Visioned in gold! <br /> <br />Love, though the fallen leaf <br />Mark, and the fleeting light <br />And the loud, loitering <br />Footfall of darkness <br />Sign to the heart <br />Of the passage of destiny, <br />Here is the ghost <br />Of a summer that lived for us, <br />Here is a promise <br />Of summers to be.<br /><br />William Ernest Henley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/time-and-the-earth/
