| (Here's a poem by Yeats, written 1937, which speaks to me.) His chosen comrades thought at school He must grow a famous man; He thought the same and lived by rule, All his twenties crammed with toil; "What then?" sang Plato's ghost. "What then?"
Everything he wrote was read, After certain years he won Sufficient money for his need, Friends that have been friends indeed; "What then"? sang Plato's ghost. "What then?" All his happier dreams came true - A small old house, wife, daughter, son, Grounds where plum and cabbage grew, Poets and Wits about him drew; "What then?" sang Plato's ghost. "What then?" 'The work is done,' grown old he thought, 'According to my boyish plan; Let the fools rage, I swerved in naught, Something to perfection brought' ; But louder sang that ghost, "What then?" | | |
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and this, by Hopkins (with thanks to C.F. for reminding me of this poem decades ago)
SPRING AND FALL
to a young child
MARGARET, are you grieving
Over goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no not mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
