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New Poems

by Francis Thompson

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Envoy

Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play;
   Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow:
And some are sung, and that was yesterday,
   And some unsung, and that may be to-morrow.

Go forth; and if it be o’er stony way,
   Old joy can lend what newer grief must borrow:
And it was sweet, and that was yesterday,
   And sweet is sweet, though purchasèd with sorrow.

Go, songs, and come not back from your far way:
   And if men ask you why ye smile and sorrow,
Tell them ye grieve, for your hearts know To-day,
   Tell them ye smile, for your eyes know To-morrow.

Footnotes27

The earth.

190 The Ark of the Egyptian temple was sealed with clay, which the Pontiff-king broke when he entered the inner shrine to offer worship.

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