Poems (Jackson)/Quatrains
HAT has he in this glorious world's domain?
Unreckoned loss which he counts up for gain,
Unreckoned shame, of which he feels no stain,
Unreckoned dead he does not know were slain.
QUATRAINS.
THE MONEY-SEEKER.
HAT has he in this glorious world's domain?Unreckoned loss which he counts up for gain,
Unreckoned shame, of which he feels no stain,
Unreckoned dead he does not know were slain.
What things does he take with him when he dies?
Nothing of all that he on earth did prize:
Unto his grovelling feet and sordid eyes
How difficult and empty seem the skies!
Nothing of all that he on earth did prize:
Unto his grovelling feet and sordid eyes
How difficult and empty seem the skies!
THE LOVER.
He knows the utmost secret of the earth:
The golden sunrise's and sunset's worth;
The pregnancy of every blossom's birth;
The hidden name of every creature's mirth.
The golden sunrise's and sunset's worth;
The pregnancy of every blossom's birth;
The hidden name of every creature's mirth.
He knows all measures of the pulse's beat;
He knows all pathless paths of human feet;
He knows what angels know not of the sweet
Fulfilments when love's being is complete.
He knows all pathless paths of human feet;
He knows what angels know not of the sweet
Fulfilments when love's being is complete.
He knows all deadly soils where poisons bloom;
He knows the fated road where joy makes room
For nameless terrors and eternal gloom:
God help him in his sad omniscient doom!
He knows the fated road where joy makes room
For nameless terrors and eternal gloom:
God help him in his sad omniscient doom!