They loved, but their story we cannot unfold;
They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved, but no wail from their slumbers may come;
They enjoyed, but the voice of their gladness is dumb.
They died, ay! they died! and we things that are now,
Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
Who make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the changes they met on their pilgrimage road.
Yea! hope and despondence, and pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together like sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, and the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.
'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud,--
O why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
WILLIAM KNOX.
ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S "HOMER."
"On First Looking Into Chapman's 'Homer,'" by John Keats (1795-1821).
The last four lines of this sonnet form the most tremendous climax in
literature.
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