By Edwin Arlington Robinson Ballade of Dead Friends A S we the withered ferns By the roadway lying, Time, the jester, spurns All our tears and sighing, All our where-and-whying For friends that come and go. Life awakes and burns. Age and death defying, Till at last it learns All but Love is dying; God has willed it so; For friends that come and go. Man forever yearns Everywhere he turns, Dust that wanders, eyeing (With eyes that hardly glow) New faces, dimly spying For friends that come and go. ENVOY And thus we all are nighing The truth we fear to know: Death will end our crying For friends that come and go. Luke Havergal G O And in the twilight wait for what will come. Whisper of her, and strike you as they fall; But go, and if you trust her she will call. Luke Havergal. No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies But there, where western glooms are gathering, The dark will end the dark, if anything: God slays Himself with every leaf that flies, And hell is more than half of paradise. In eastern skies. Out of grave I come to quench the kiss That flames upon your forehead with a glow That blinds you to the way that you must go. | |
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