Dumb Mouths.
15
What blossom fears to break its sheath of green
Because of fallen petals in the dust?
What fears to be, because so much has been,
And is not, food for time's unfailing lust?
What human heart restrains its passion thrill
Because of other hearts that thrilled and died?
Who falters as he climbs ambition's hill,
Because the path leads down the other side?
This is the bush that drugs creation's wine,
This is the poppy fume of nature's breath
Whereby she drowns, in lusty life, the sign
Of ultimate and universal death.
Because of fallen petals in the dust?
What fears to be, because so much has been,
And is not, food for time's unfailing lust?
What human heart restrains its passion thrill
Because of other hearts that thrilled and died?
Who falters as he climbs ambition's hill,
Because the path leads down the other side?
This is the bush that drugs creation's wine,
This is the poppy fume of nature's breath
Whereby she drowns, in lusty life, the sign
Of ultimate and universal death.
And whereunto this zeal that never fails?
And to what goal doth she so sternly press?
What purpose is pursued, and what avails
This endless stream of human nothingness?
Ah! does the leaf that falls when it is meet
Rebel? or do the parting atoms chide?
Do withered moons remonstrate? or the feet
Of ordered processes refuse to glide
On their appointed paths because so soon
They shall be but a road for others' tread?
From all the long array of morn and noon
And night, and seasons born, and seasons dead,
And to what goal doth she so sternly press?
What purpose is pursued, and what avails
This endless stream of human nothingness?
Ah! does the leaf that falls when it is meet
Rebel? or do the parting atoms chide?
Do withered moons remonstrate? or the feet
Of ordered processes refuse to glide
On their appointed paths because so soon
They shall be but a road for others' tread?
From all the long array of morn and noon
And night, and seasons born, and seasons dead,
