You promise heavens free from strife Pure truth, and perfect change of will But sweet, sweet is this human life So sweet, I fain would breathe it still Your chilly stars I can forgo This warm kind world is all I know You say there is no substance here One great reality above Back from that void I shrink in fear And child-like hide myself in love Show me what angels feel; till then I cling, a mere weak man, to men
You bid me lift my mean desires From faltering lips and fitful veins To s**less souls, ideal quires Unwearied voices, wordless strains My mind with fonder welcome owns One dear dead friend's remember'd tones Forsooth the present we must give To that which cannot pa** away All beauteous things for which we live By laws of time and space decay But O, the very reason why I clasp them, is because they die