TILL death have broken <br />Sweet life’s love-token, <br />Till all be spoken <br />That shall be said, <br />What dost thou praying, <br />O soul, and playing <br />With song and saying, <br />Things flown and fled? <br />For this we know not— <br />That fresh springs flow not <br />And fresh griefs grow not <br />When men are dead; <br />When strange years cover <br />Lover and lover, <br />And joys are over <br />And tears are shed. <br /> <br />If one day’s sorrow <br />Mar the day’s morrow— <br />If man’s life borrow <br />And man’s death pay— <br />If souls once taken, <br />If lives once shaken, <br />Arise, awaken, <br />By night, by day— <br />Why with strong crying <br />And years of sighing, <br />Living and dying, <br />Fast ye and pray? <br />For all your weeping, <br />Waking and sleeping, <br />Death comes to reaping <br />And takes away. <br /> <br />Though time rend after <br />Roof-tree from rafter, <br />A little laughter <br />Is much more worth <br />Than thus to measure <br />The hour, the treasure, <br />The pain, the pleasure, <br />The death, the birth; <br />Grief, when days alter, <br />Like joy shall falter; <br />Song-book and psalter, <br />Mourning and mirth. <br />Live like the swallow; <br />Seek not to follow <br />Where earth is hollow <br />Under the earth.<br /><br />Algernon Charles Swinburne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/anima-anceps/
