CLOUDS is under clouds and rain <br />For there will not come again <br />Two, the beloved sire and son <br />Whom all gifts were rained upon. <br /> <br /> <br />Kindness is all done, alas, <br />Courtesy and grace must pass, <br />Beauty, wit and charm lie dead, <br />Love no more may wreathe the head. <br /> <br /> <br />Now the branch that waved so high <br />No wind tosses to the sky; <br />There's no flowering time to come, <br />No sweet leafage and no bloom. <br /> <br /> <br />Percy, golden-hearted boy, <br />In the heyday of his joy <br />Left his new-made bride and chose <br />The steep way that Honour goes. <br /> <br /> <br />Took for his the deathless song <br />Of the love that knows no wrong: <br />Could I love thee, dear, so true <br />Were not Honour more than you? <br /> <br /> <br />(Oh, forgive, dear Lovelace, laid <br />In this mean Procrustean bed!) <br />Dear, I love thee best of all <br />When I go, at England's call. <br /> <br /> <br />In our magnificent sky aglow <br />How shall we this Percy know <br />Where he shines among the suns <br />And the planets and the moons? <br /> <br /> <br />Percy died for England, why, <br />Here's a sign to know him by! <br />There's one dear and fixèd star, <br />There's a youngling never far. <br /> <br /> <br />Percy and his father keep <br />The old loved companionship, <br />And shine downward in one ray <br />Where at Clouds they wait for day.<br /><br />Katharine Tynan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-lament-11/
