Terminus

    Terminus shows the ways and says,
    "All things must have an end."
    Oh, bitter thought we hid away
    When first you were my friend.

    We hid it in the darkest place
    Our hearts had place to hide,
    And took the sweet as from a spring
    Whose waters would abide.

    For neither life nor the wide world
    Has greater store than this: -
    The thought that runs through hands and eyes
    And fills the silences.

    There is a void the agéd world
    Throws over the spent heart;
    When Life has given all she has,
    And Terminus says depart.

    When we must sit with folded hands,
    And see with inward eye
    A void rise like an arctic breath
    To hollow the morrow's sky.

    To-morrow is, and trembling leaves,
    And 'wildered winds from Thrace
    Look for you where your face has bloomed,
    And where may bloom your face.

    Beyond the city, over the hill,
    Under the anguished moon,
    The winds and my dreams seek after you
    By meadow, water and dune.

    All things must have an end, we know;
    But oh, the dreaded end;
    Whether in life, whether in death,
    To lose the cherished friend.

    To lose in life the cherished friend,
    While the myrtle tree is green;
    To live and have the cherished friend
    With only the world between.

    With only the wide, wide world between,
    Where memory has mortmain.
    Life pours more wine in the heart of man
    Than the heart of man can contain.

    Oh, heart of man and heart of woman,
    Thirsting for blood of the vine,
    Life waits till the heart has lived too much
    And then pours in new wine!