Poems (Loveman)/A twenty-second birthday
A TWENTY-SECOND BIRTHDAY.
One last sweet look at boyhood's fledgeling gleam,
A mutinous onset on the rapt sea-marge;
I must not falter in my destin'd dream,
I must not tarry for the day is large.
So much defected, so much to redeem,
The sleep that circles in our wearied eyes,
The love that clutches at old memories,
How can I grasp it all, the subtle scheme?
Only the beauty of the fluttering light
That each divining loveliness forbears,
This, lest oblivion creep upon and smite
Our nature with the sanctity of tears—
Blind, groping children of inevitable night,
That spins its fabric on our inverse prayers.
A mutinous onset on the rapt sea-marge;
I must not falter in my destin'd dream,
I must not tarry for the day is large.
So much defected, so much to redeem,
The sleep that circles in our wearied eyes,
The love that clutches at old memories,
How can I grasp it all, the subtle scheme?
Only the beauty of the fluttering light
That each divining loveliness forbears,
This, lest oblivion creep upon and smite
Our nature with the sanctity of tears—
Blind, groping children of inevitable night,
That spins its fabric on our inverse prayers.