Better Gutenberg
Free, beautifully formatted public-domain ebooks

Dreams and Images

by Joyce Kilmer

114 of 214 · Contents · Download EPUB

Surrender

If thou art merely conscious clay—ah, well,
  Tire not such stuff with futile, tread-mill climb
  Which lifts to leave thee level with the slime;
Nor think that death can break thy earth-born spell;
Clay hath no heel Achillean, vulnerable.
  Be animate till some deliberate time
  Shall choke and crunch thee to potential grime,
For thou art fit for neither heaven nor hell.

But He Who made thee cousin to the clod
 First plunged thee in the Spirit Which is He,
Whence thou hast risen, divinely armed and shod
 To scale the ramparts of eternity.
Already stricken with the shafts of God,
 Thou fallest prisoner to the Deity.

← Back to Dreams and Images

Scroll to Top