A Spring Harvest/"We who have bowed ourselves to Time"

by Geoffrey Bache Smith

III. LAST POEMS AND "THE BURIAL
OF SOPHOCLES"

"WE WHO HAVE BOWED OURSELVES TO TIME"

We who have bowed ourselves to timeNow arm an uneventful rimeWith panoply of flowersThrough the long summer hours. . . .

But now our fierce and warlike MuseDoth soft companionship refuse,And we must mount and rideUpon a steed untried. . . .

We who have led by gradual waysOur placid life to sterner daysAnd for old quiet thingsHave set the strife of kings,

Who battled have with bloody handsThrough evil times in barren lands,To whom the voice of gunsSpeaks and no longer stuns,

Calm, though with death encompassèd,That watch the hours go overheadKnowing too well we mustWith all men come to dust. . . .

Crave of our masters' clemencySilence a little space that weUpon their ear may forceTales of our trodden course.