We speak not; trembles each head;
In their sockets our eyes are still;
Desire as cold as the dead;
Without wonder or will.
And One, with a lanthorn, draws near,
At clash with the moon in our eyes:
‘Where art thou?’ he asks: ‘I am here,’
One by one we arise.
And none lifts a hand to withhold
A friend from the touch of that foe:
Heart cries unto heart, ‘Thou art old!’
Yet reluctant, we go.
THE FOOL’S SONG
’Tis sad in sooth to lie under the grass,
But none too gladsome to wake and grow cold where life’s shadows pass.
Dumb the old Toll-Woman squats,
And, for every green copper battered and worn, doles out Nevers and Nots.
I know a Blind Man, too,
Who with a sharp ear listens and listens the whole world through.
Oh, sit we snug to our feast,
With platter and finger and spoon—and good victuals at least.