Poems (Kennedy)/The Coming and Going
THE COMING AND THE GOING
WITH spendthrift gold of daffodils, With red of a rose,With purple pomp of shadows where The lilac grows—
With kingly scarlet in the hedge Where sumacs burn,With gray of ashes scattered far From Time's inverted urn—
With anthems glad from feathered choirs, Bluebird and lark,With five low notes the thrushes sing Before the dark—
Thus came the year now dead and gone, With color and with songAnd the crystal promise of soul to soul To do no wrong!
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How did you use the free-gift year, Now but a wraith?Did you hold its pledge of good in your heart And keep the faith?
How did you sepulchre this sweet year, Gone back to God—With a rose of love on its shriven breast, Or only a clod?
For records you leave with the vanished years Will witness trueWhen out of the dusk the Master calls The soul of you.