“Youth may be just as nigh Eternity

As Age. What though the pitfalls of Existence

Be covered o’er with flowers in lieu of snows,

Who shall foremeasure the brief distance

Between this dim dream’s birth and close?

The wingéd bolts of Death are swift to strike

Life in its dawning as decline;

The pallid Parcæ play their game alike

With your days and with mine.

Who knows which of us four shall be the one