WHO WOULD LIVE AGAIN? <br />Oh who would live again to suffer loss? <br />Once in my youth I battled with my fate, <br />Grudging my days to death. I would have won <br />A place by violence beneath the sun. <br />I took my pleasures madly as by force, <br />Even the air of heaven was a prize. <br />I stood a plunderer at death's very gate, <br />And all the lands of life I did o'errun <br />With sack and pillage. Then I scorned to die, <br />Save as a conqueror. The treasuries <br />Of love I ransacked; pity, pride and hate. <br />All that can make hearts beat or brim men's eyes <br />With living tears I took as robes to wear. <br />--But see, now time has struck me on the hip. <br />I cannot hate nor love. My senses are <br />Struck silent with the silence of my lip. <br />No courage kindles in my heart to dare, <br />No strength to do. The world's last phantoms slip <br />Out of my grasp, and naught is left but pain. <br />Love, life, vain strength!--Oh who would live again?<br /><br />Wilfrid Scawen Blunt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-love-sonnets-of-proteus-part-iii-gods-and-false-gods-lxxvii/
