Poems (Probyn)/Sonnet
For works with similar titles, see Sonnet.
SONNET.
The Future or the Past—which fear we most?
The Future, walking with her shrouded eyes
Ever in front, vouchsafing no replies,
A moving Silence on a shore uncrossed,—
Or the dead Past, that lies behind us lost,
That haunts us with relentless memories,
And yields not up for prayers, or tears, or cries,
One day, one hour of all her buried host—?
The unknown Future face we half aghast—
Heart, spirit, being, yearn toward the Past;
The Past would wake no moan, would hold no pain,
If coming days could bring it back at last,—
Yea, all the Future would we give, full fain,
To have that old belovéd Past again!
The Future, walking with her shrouded eyes
Ever in front, vouchsafing no replies,
A moving Silence on a shore uncrossed,—
Or the dead Past, that lies behind us lost,
That haunts us with relentless memories,
And yields not up for prayers, or tears, or cries,
One day, one hour of all her buried host—?
The unknown Future face we half aghast—
Heart, spirit, being, yearn toward the Past;
The Past would wake no moan, would hold no pain,
If coming days could bring it back at last,—
Yea, all the Future would we give, full fain,
To have that old belovéd Past again!