Grey-green willows, and life a stream—
Laughing and sighing and lovely; and, Oh,
You to be next in that long row!
And yet, "But silly we" is true of most of us and of most of our time on earth. As Coventry Patmore says:
An idle Poet, here and there,
Looks round him, but, for all the rest,
The world, unfathomably fair,
Is duller than a witling's jest.
Love wakes men, once a life-time each;
They lift their heavy lids, and look;