THE SAME CONTINUED <br />And then fate strikes us. First our joys decay. <br />Youth, with its pleasures, is a tale soon told. <br />We grow a little poorer day by day. <br />Old friendships falter. Loves grow strangely cold. <br />In vain we shift our hearts to a new hold <br />And barter joy for joy, the less for less. <br />We doubt our strength, our wisdom, and our gold. <br />We stand alone, as in a wilderness <br />Of doubts and terrors. Then, if we be wise, <br />We make our terms with fate and, while we may, <br />Sell our life's last sad remnant for a hope. <br />And it is wisdom thus to close our eyes. <br />But for the foolish, those who cannot pray, <br />What else remains of their dark horoscope <br />But a tall tree and courage and a rope?<br /><br />Wilfrid Scawen Blunt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-love-sonnets-of-proteus-part-iii-gods-and-false-gods-lxxv/
