And find, with hoary head and sage,
In songs which I have sung
The meanings of the end of age—
The rapture of the young!
February 11th, 1918.
DRUMS OF DEFEAT
THE FOOL
A SHOUT of laughter and of scorn,
A million jeering lips and eyes—
And in the sight of all men born
The wildest of earth’s madmen dies!
Whose trust was put in empty words
To-day is numbered with the dead;
To-morrow crows and evil birds
Shall pluck those strange eyes from his head!