UNEASY MARRIAGE
ONE day nearer, one day in advance
Of the earlier dread, the illusory tread, Tread of the years, with the bell-stroke of winter, The iron ringing of frost; the following trance Of the narcissus lost where its perfumes enter The pond-edge, and madden the water with longing ; One day nearer the summer, the bruising of grass Under love, and the nightingales' empty singing, With wonder and sleep, and a horror that will not pass ; One day nearer the autumn, with the manly work, The farewell to love, the turn to political fruit As the tree sheds wealth, each leaf with its mark Of gold, and decay in close pursuit.
That is the tale of a day. Is it enough To round off a life, to snatch. it from time And testify to the soul's immortal stuff Whose season is but single and sublime?
Or must the folly of the four divisions Fail with their heat and cold, their love and loss, Leaving us strangers where we most inherit, And foreign to the seed that we have spilled Careless of need, and ignorant of merit, While the rash act an unknown self has willed Overtakes knowledge, grows ominous and gross, And plays the tyrant until death has stilled The uneasy marriage under stones, and filled Their intervals with counterfeiting moss?
RICHARD CHURCH.
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