Edwin Arlington Robinson - Ballade of Dead Friends lyrics

As we the withered ferns   By the roadway lying, Time, the jester, spurns   All our prayers and prying —   All our tears and sighing, Sorrow, change, and woe —   All our where-and-whying For friends that come and go. Life awakes and burns,   Age and d**h defying, Till at last it learns   All but Love is dying;   Love's the trade we're plying, God has willed it so;   Shrouds are what we're buying For friends that come and go. Man forever yearns   For the thing that's flying. Everywhere he turns,   Men to dust are drying, —   Dust that wanders, eying (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: d**h will end our crying   For friends that come and go.