| |
| WELL, Bokardo, here we are; | |
| Make yourself at home. | |
| Look around—you haven’t far | |
| To look—and why be dumb? | |
| Not the place that used to be, | 5 |
| Not so many things to see; | |
| But there’s room for you and me. | |
| And you—you’ve come. | |
| |
| Talk a little; or, if not, | |
| Show me with a sign | 10 |
| Why it was that you forgot | |
| What was yours and mine. | |
| Friends, I gather, are small things | |
| In an age when coins are kings; | |
| Even at that, one hardly flings | 15 |
| Friends before swine. | |
| |
| Rather strong? I knew as much, | |
| For it made you speak. | |
| No offense to swine, as such, | |
| But why this hide-and-seek? | 20 |
| You have something on your side, | |
| And you wish you might have died, | |
| So you tell me. And you tried | |
| One night last week? | |
| |
| You tried hard? And even then | 25 |
| Found a time to pause? | |
| When you try as hard again, | |
| You’ll have another cause. | |
| When you find yourself at odds | |
| With all dreamers of all gods, | 30 |
| You may smite yourself with rods— | |
| But not the laws. | |
| |
| Though they seem to show a spite | |
| Rather devilish, | |
| They move on as with a might | 35 |
| Stronger than your wish. | |
| Still, however strong they be, | |
| They bide man’s authority: | |
| Xerxes, when he flogged the sea, | |
| May’ve scared a fish. | 40 |
| |
| It’s a comfort, if you like, | |
| To keep honor warm, | |
| But as often as you strike | |
| The laws, you do no harm. | |
| To the laws, I mean. To you— | 45 |
| That’s another point of view, | |
| One you may as well indue | |
| With some alarm. | |
| |
| Not the most heroic face | |
| To present, I grant; | 50 |
| Nor will you insure disgrace | |
| By fearing what you want. | |
| Freedom has a world of sides, | |
| And if reason once derides | |
| Courage, then your courage hides | 55 |
| A deal of cant. | |
| |
| Learn a little to forget | |
| Life was once a feast; | |
| You aren’t fit for dying yet, | |
| So don’t be a beast. | 60 |
| Few men with a mind will say, | |
| Thinking twice, that they can pay | |
| Half their debts of yesterday, | |
| Or be released. | |
| |
| There’s a debt now on your mind | 65 |
| More than any gold? | |
| And there’s nothing you can find | |
| Out there in the cold? | |
| Only—what’s his name?—Remorse? | |
| And Death riding on his horse? | 70 |
| Well, be glad there’s nothing worse | |
| Than you have told. | |
| |
| Leave Remorse to warm his hands | |
| Outside in the rain. | |
| As for Death, he understands, | 75 |
| And he will come again. | |
| Therefore, till your wits are clear, | |
| Flourish and be quiet—here. | |
| But a devil at each ear | |
| Will be a strain? | 80 |
| |
| Past a doubt they will indeed, | |
| More than you have earned. | |
| I say that because you need | |
| Ablution, being burned? | |
| Well, if you must have it so, | 85 |
| Your last flight went rather low. | |
| Better say you had to know | |
| What you have learned. | |
| |
| And that’s over. Here you are, | |
| Battered by the past. | 90 |
| Time will have his little scar, | |
| But the wound won’t last. | |
| Nor shall harrowing surprise | |
| Find a world without its eyes | |
| If a star fades when the skies | 95 |
| Are overcast. | |
| |
| God knows there are lives enough, | |
| Crushed, and too far gone | |
| Longer to make sermons of, | |
| And those we leave alone. | 100 |
| Others, if they will, may rend | |
| The worn patience of a friend | |
| Who, though smiling, sees the end, | |
| With nothing done. | |
| |
| But your fervor to be free | 105 |
| Fled the faith it scorned; | |
| Death demands a decency | |
| Of you, and you are warned. | |
| But for all we give we get | |
| Mostly blows? Don’t be upset; | 110 |
| You, Bokardo, are not yet | |
| Consumed or mourned. | |
| |
| There’ll be falling into view | |
| Much to rearrange; | |
| And there’ll be a time for you | 115 |
| To marvel at the change. | |
| They that have the least to fear | |
| Question hardest what is here; | |
| When long-hidden skies are clear, | |
| The stars look strange. | 120 |
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