Vita Brevis

[ZaunköniG]

MARJORIE L.C. PICKTHALL
1883 - 1922 GB / Canada

VITA BREVIS

I


Soul, if indeed the dead do not arise
Drink and lie down. There’s nought required of thee.
If Shelley is but ash beside the sea,
And Homer bide forever with blind eyes,

If for tall Hector not a sea-breath sighs
On the gray plain, if Shakespeare’s laugh be broken
In a little dust, and all his sweet words spoken,
If Beatrix look no more from Paradise,—

If this be so, O Soul, cast out thy fears,
Worship of women and high pride of men,
The sad, the brave, the pure, the sacrificed.

They are one with death and thee, not worth thy tears.
Yea, even thy grief is vain if Magdalen
Kisses no more the silver feet of Christ.

[ZaunköniG]

MARJORIE L.C. PICKTHALL
1883 - 1922 GB / Canada

VITA BREVIS

II

Once more our halcyon by the watercress
Flashes his sapphired sheathing, and once more
The partridge suns along the little shore;
Each silvered morning sees one rose the less,

One gold flake filch’d from out the poplar’s dress,
All fall’n, all passing, making room for those,
Bird unbegotten and unbudded rose,
New wings, new leaves, new-risen loveliness.

All the earth gave, again the earth shall take:
Blessed is she. Life falls to her like snow.
Grave is she, grave and mother, slayer and spouse.

But suns were built in heaven for thy sake.
Thou also shalt go home; perhaps shalt know
Great laughters greet thee from thy Father’s House.