William Johnson Cory

Here you will find the Poem Mimnermus in Church of poet William Johnson Cory

Mimnermus in Church

You promise heavens free from strife, 
Pure truth, and perfect change of will; 
But sweet, sweet is this human life, 
So sweet, I fain would breathe it still; 
Your chilly stars I can forgo,
This warm kind world is all I know. 

You say there is no substance here, 
One great reality above: 
Back from that void I shrink in fear, 
And child-like hide myself in love: 
Show me what angels feel. Till then 
I cling, a mere weak man, to men. 

You bid me lift my mean desires 
From faltering lips and fitful veins 
To sexless souls, ideal quires, 
Unwearied voices, wordless strains: 
My mind with fonder welcome owns 
One dear dead friend's remember'd tones. 

Forsooth the present we must give 
To that which cannot pass away; 
All beauteous things for which we live 
By laws of time and space decay. 
But O, the very reason why 
I clasp them, is because they die.