“Nothing endures,” you said;
“None can die,” quoth love;
“In the firmament of loving
No stars set, no meteors fall.”
Yet, nothing endures, nothing,
Naught but dust;
Naught but regret and vain desire
The twin monuments of life,
Reared by time, by wrecking
All that we seek and find.
Its relentless waves of years
Break even the impregnable wall of memory
That thought builds
On the embankment of hope.
Pass all away, even we who loved,
Dreamt as none dreamt before —
Borne by the tide of life —
But, lo! from our defeated destiny
Rise our seeds reared by time
Consecrated to love and living!