GRIEF and change and sure decay
All on earth are doomed to know,
What the Past's memorials say
Must the Present undergo.
Time but shifts his glass about,
And the sands their aims adjust,
In Creation's bounds throughout
All that is returns to dust.
On the bud and on the flower,
On the child and man grown grey,
Change is passing every hour,
Death has set his snare to slay.
And the feelings when they glow
With a taste of joy intense,
Soon a tinge of sadness know,
Dimming quickly all the sense.
Vainly do we strive to keep
Such scant solace as we feel,
Blight unseen on all doth creep,
Pleasures hidden stings conceal.
Weary soon become the things
That at first make glad our way,
And To-morrow never brings
The same joy we knew To-day.
Toil exhausts, and strong Desire
Wasteth both the heart and head
With its strugglings, as the fire
Fastest burns the more 'tis fed.
Life is all a chequered score,
Death and Time direct the chess,
One hath not a triumph more,
Nor the other one the less.
Thus amid Mutation's range,
Man, impatient of relief,
Learns himself to long for change,
Even though bringing with it grief.