Paradox of Time

Each day now more precious will dawn,

And loved faces turn dearer still,

And when sunlight is withdrawn,

There, over the mountain's black profile,

The western star reigns

In splendor, benign, arrogant,

And the fact that it disdains

You, and your tenement

Of flesh, should instruct you in

The paradox of Time,

And the doubleness wherein

The fleshly glory may gleam.

Sit on the floor with a child.

Hear laugh that creature so young.

See loom its life-arch, and wild

With rage, speak wild words sprung

From vision, and thus atone

For all folly now left behind.

Learn the gravity of stone.

Learn the ecstasy of wind.