Mortality
Mortality
Original Text
Theodore Goodridge Roberts, The Leather Bottle (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1934): 68.
Internet Archive.
1A little strife--and oh! the long forgetting.
2 A gust of cheering--and the frozen breath.
3A day of singing--and a night of silence.
4 An hour for living--and an age for death.
5So go the great; so goes the shining hero;
6 So go we all, the weak, the strong, the blind,
7The proud, the meek, the saint, the mocking sinner,
8 Stumbling in front and crowding fast behind.
9A little mirth--and oh! the long composure.
10 A few swift paces--and the fainting breath.
11Your day for singing, and God’s time for silence.
12 My day for loving, and God’s age for death.
13And yet I swear by the Eternal Riddle,
14 The Holy Mysteries and the Awful Name,
15My care is all for mortal human kindness,
16 My jealousy for this brief minute’s fame.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
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