Since all that is, is born to pass away?
Hero and maiden to the urn are vowed,
And beauty saves not when the debt falls due;
Apollo with the darker gods has died,
And Gæa at the last shall be as they.
O Helen of the soul! O golden isle!
By beauty doomed, by beauty sanctified,
Thou too canst not abide,
But like all else shalt last a little while—
A little longer than the falling spray—