IMMORTALITY
Begins to melt away, and scatter,
Speeding in changing ways; it lifts
Where lilacs bud in purple drifts,
It mounts the greenly glowing trees,
It seeps into the parent earth,
And joins the cool and liquid mirth
Of brooks that bubble to the seas;
It lends its agile ordered strength
To cattle, and to ants that crawl;
It writhes within the serpent's length,
It peals the thrush's whistling call.
Men and women and children die,—
Seeds plowed under by bomb and shell,—
Scatter, and recombine, and swell
A lovely harvest toward the sky.
Speeding in changing ways; it lifts
Where lilacs bud in purple drifts,
It mounts the greenly glowing trees,
It seeps into the parent earth,
And joins the cool and liquid mirth
Of brooks that bubble to the seas;
It lends its agile ordered strength
To cattle, and to ants that crawl;
It writhes within the serpent's length,
It peals the thrush's whistling call.
Men and women and children die,—
Seeds plowed under by bomb and shell,—
Scatter, and recombine, and swell
A lovely harvest toward the sky.
As men, we were not worthy; we
Were weighed, found wanting, and set free
From suicidal liberty.
For lilac bush and slender larch
Are fixed too firm to "Forward, March!"
And laughing water cannot wet
With what drips from a bayonet;
And snake and cattle do not loose
Were weighed, found wanting, and set free
From suicidal liberty.
For lilac bush and slender larch
Are fixed too firm to "Forward, March!"
And laughing water cannot wet
With what drips from a bayonet;
And snake and cattle do not loose
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