Destroyers and Other Verses/Elan Vital

by Henry Head

 

ELAN VITAL.

All things that live and grow are full of hope.
The slender primrose on the woodland slope,
Tangled and overgrown,
Unfolds its crumpled florets one by one
To seek the sun;
The snow-bound crocus thrusts an amber cone
Through frozen earth; even the fallen elm
Fringes with tender green its ancient bole.
But Death extracts a toll
From Beauty, Courage, Innocent Desire,
And tempests overwhelm
The fruit-tree blossom, trampled in the mire,
Sweet harbinger of unfulfilled delight.

When terror keeps the watches of the night
And childhood's faith is gone,
And passion spent,
We stagger to our feet and stumble on
In pain, in sorrow and bewilderment
Impelled to hope by man's instinctive soul.