-
-
Let us cease our idle chatter,
Let the tears bedew our cheek,
For a man from Tallangatta
Has been missing for a week.
Where the roaring flooded Murray
Covered all the lower land,
There he started in a hurry
With a bottle in his hand.
And his fate is bid for ever,...How many Flowers fail in Wood —
Or perish from the Hill —
Without the privilege to know
That they are Beautiful —
How many cast a nameless Pod
Upon the nearest Breeze —
Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight —
It bear to Other Eyes —How many schemes may die
In one short Afternoon
Entirely unknown
To those they most concern —
The man that was not lost
Because by accident
He varied by a Ribbon's width
From his accustomed route —
The Love that would not try
Because beside the Door
It must...How many times these low feet staggered —
Only the soldered mouth can tell —
Try — can you stir the awful rivet —
Try — can you lift the hasps of steel!
Stroke the cool forehead — hot so often —
Lift — if you care — the listless hair —
Handle the adamantine fingers
Never a thimble —...How much of Source escapes with thee —
How chief thy sessions be —
For thou hast borne a universe
Entirely away.How much the present moment means
To those who've nothing more —
The Fop — the Carp — the Atheist —
Stake an entire store
Upon a Moment's shallow Rim
While their commuted Feet
The Torrents of Eternity
Do all but inundate —How News must feel when travelling
If News have any Heart
Alighting at the Dwelling
'Twill enter like a Dart!
What News must think when pondering
If News have any Thought
Concerning the stupendousness
Of its perceiveless freight!
What News will do when every Man
...How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand,
Until a sudden sky
Reveals the fact that One is rapt
Forever from the Eye —
Members of the Invisible,
Existing, while we stare,
In Leagueless Opportunity,
O'ertakenless, as the Air —
Why didn't we detain Them?
The...How ruthless are the gentle —
How cruel are the kind —
God broke his contract to his Lamb
To qualify the Wind —