Earth the Healer, Earth the Keeper – William Morris 💫

So swift the hours are moving Unto the time unproved:

Farewell my love unloving,

Farewell my love beloved!

What! are we not glad-hearted?

Is there no deed to do?

Is not all fear departed And Spring-tide blossomed new?

The sails swell out above us, The sea-ridge lifts the keel;

For They have called who love us, Who bear the gifts that heal:

A crown for him that winneth,

A bed for him that fails,

A glory that beginneth In never-dying tales.

Yet now the pain is ended

And the glad hand grips the sword,

Look on thy life amended And deal out due award.

Think of the thankless morning,

The gifts of noon unused;

Think of the eve of scorning,

The night of prayer refused.

And yet. The life before it,

Dost thou remember aught,

What terrors shivered o’er it Born from the hell of thought?

And this that cometh after:

How dost thou live, and dare

To meet its empty laughter, To face its friendless care?

In fear didst thou desire,

At peace dost thou regret,

The wasting of the fire,

The tangling of the net.

Love came and gat fair greeting;

Love went; and left no shame.

Shall both the twilights meeting

The summer sunlight blame?

What! cometh love and goeth

Like the dark night’s empty wind,

Because thy folly soweth The harvest of the blind?

Hast thou slain love with sorrow?

Have thy tears quenched the sun?

Nay even yet tomorrow Shall many a deed be done.

This twilight sea thou sailest,

Has it grown dim and black

For that wherein thou failest,

And the story of thy lack?

Peace then!

for thine old grieving

Was born of Earth the kind,

And the sad tale thou art leaving Earth shall not leave behind.

Peace! for that joy abiding

Whereon thou layest hold

Earth keepeth for a riding

For the day when this is old.

Thy soul and life shall perish,

And thy name as last night’s wind;

But Earth the deed shall cherish

That thou today shalt find.

And all thy joy and sorrow So great but yesterday,

So light a thing tomorrow,

Shall never pass away.

Lo! lo! the dawn-blink yonder,

The sunrise draweth nigh,

And men forget to wonder

That they were born to die.

Then praise the deed that wendeth

Through the daylight and the mirth!

The tale that never endeth Whoso may dwell on the earth.