Though life should come <br />With all its marshalled honours, trump and drum, <br />To proffer you the captaincy of some <br />Resounding exploit, that shall fill <br />Man’s pulses with commemorative thrill, <br />And be a banner to far battle days <br />For truths unrisen upon untrod ways, <br />What would your answer be, <br />O heart once brave? <br />Seek otherwhere; for me, <br />I watch beside a grave. <br /> <br />Though to some shining festival of thought <br />The sages call you from steep citadel <br />Of bastioned argument, whose rampart gained <br />Yields the pure vision passionately sought, <br />In dreams known well, <br />But never yet in wakefulness attained, <br />How should you answer to their summons, save: <br />I watch beside a grave? <br /> <br />Though Beauty, from her fane within the soul <br />Of fire-tongued seers descending, <br />Or from the dream-lit temples of the past <br />With feet immortal wending, <br />Illuminate grief’s antre swart and vast <br />With half-veiled face that promises the whole <br />To him who holds her fast, <br />What answer could you give? <br />Sight of one face I crave, <br />One only while I live; <br />Woo elsewhere; for I watch beside a grave. <br /> <br />Though love of the one heart that loves you best, <br />A storm-tossed messenger, <br />Should beat its wings for shelter in your breast, <br />Where clung its last year’s nest, <br />The nest you built together and made fast <br />Lest envious winds should stir, <br />And winged each delicate thought to minister <br />With sweetness far-amassed <br />To the young dreams within— <br />What answer could it win? <br />The nest was whelmed in sorrow’s rising wave, <br />Nor could I reach one drowning dream to save; <br />I watch beside a grave.<br /><br />Edith Wharton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-grave-3/
