YOU promise heavens free from strife,   Pure truth, and perfect change of will; But sweet, sweet is this human life,   So sweet, I fain would breathe it still; Your chilly stars I can forgo, This warm kind world is all I know.

You say there is no substance here,   One great reality above: Back from that void I shrink in fear,   And child-like hide myself in love: Show me what angels feel. Till then I cling, a mere weak man, to men.

You bid me lift my mean desires   From faltering lips and fitful veins To sexless souls, ideal quires,   Unwearied voices, wordless strains: My mind with fonder welcome owns One dear dead friend's remember'd tones.

Forsooth the present we must give   To that which cannot pass away; All beauteous things for which we live   By laws of time and space decay. But O, the very reason why I clasp them, is because they die.