Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LOVE OF THE PAST, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LOVE OF THE PAST, by                    
First Line: As sailors watch from their prison
Last Line: That the things of the past are the best
Subject(s): Past


As sailors watch from their prison
For the long, gray line of the coasts,
I look to the past re-arisen,
And joys come over in hosts
Like the white sea-birds from their roosts.

I love not the delicate present,
The future's unknown to our quest;
To-day is the life of the peasant,
But the past is a haven of rest, --
The joy of the past is the best.

The rose of the past is better
Than the rose we ravish to-day;
'T is holier, purer, and fitter
To place on the shrine where we pray, --
For the secret thoughts we obey.

There are no deceptions nor changes,
There all is as placid and still;
No grief nor fate that estranges,
Nor hope that no life can fulfil;
But ethereal shelter from ill.

The coarse delights of the hour
Tempt and debauch and deprave;
And we joy in a poisonous flower,
Knowing that nothing can save
Our flesh from the fate of the grave.

But surely we leave them returning
In grief to the well-loved nest,
Filled with an infinite yearning,
Knowing the past to be rest, --
That the things of the past are the best.





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