WARM and golden and dear
In custom and kindness set,
We builded against our fear
A place wherein to forget
Darkness that rings us near.
Here our hearts we deceive
And will not understand.
Whether we laugh or grieve
We dwell in a lamp-lit land—
A land of make-believe
Not too high for our pride
Whereto we are ever bond
Nor for our souls too wide—
And all is night beyond
Where monstrous things abide.
Still without ceasing we
Watch on our stronghold keep,
Lest lamps burn flickeringly,
And, while we slumber and sleep,
Outcast eternity
Break in a moment through
Our soul-built barriers slight,
Look in on us with blue
Lustreless eyes, whose light
Life everlasting slew.
Heavy with endless days,
With endless wisdom sad,
Should those eyes behold our days
And our loves wherein we are glad,
We might not abide their gaze.
Our sorrows flee fast away
Like shadows before the morn,
In the light of eternal day
Pale all our joys forlorn,
Elf-gold that will not stay;
Find we, looking again,
For all our cherished treasures
And all our labours vain,
Weariness all our pleasures
And worthless all our pain.
Our vanities kissed and curled,
Ere the swift vision is gone,
Into the void are hurled;
But we ourselves live on,
Waifs in a blasted world,
Where light and laughter and love
Lie dead in the dark together
And we brood their dust above,
Knowing not surely whether
'Tis life at our hearts doth move.
Lost without remedy,
We sit under pitiless skies
Mourning the moment we
Looked with our finite eyes
Into Infinity!