Arthur Hugh Clough - Seven Sonnets I lyrics

That children in their loveliness should die Before the dawning beauty, which we know Cannot remain, has yet begun to go; That when a certain period has pa**ed by, People of genius and of faculty, Leaving behind them some result to show, Having performed some function, should forego A task which younger hands can better ply, Appears entirely natural. But that one Whose perfectness did not at all consist In things towards forming which time could have done Anything,--whose sole office was to exist Should suddenly dissolve and cease to be Calls up the hardest questions. . . .