Time And The Earth

To A. J. H.              Time and the Earth -     The old Father and Mother -     Their teeming accomplished,     Their purpose fulfilled,     Close with a smile     For a moment of kindness,     Ere for the winter     They settle to sleep.     Failing yet gracious,     Slow pacing, soon homing,     A patriarch that strolls     Through the tents of his children,     The Sun, as he journeys     His round on the lower     Ascents of the blue,     Washes the roofs     And the hillsides with clarity;     Charms the dark pools     Till they break into pictures;     Scatters magnificent     Alms to the beggar trees;     Touches the mist-folk,     That crowd to his escort,     Into translucencies     Radiant and ravishing:     As with the visible     Spirit of Summer     Gloriously vaporised,     Visioned in gold!     Love, though the fallen leaf     Mark, and the fleeting light     And the loud, loitering     Footfall of darkness     Sign to the heart     Of the passage of destiny,     Here is the ghost     Of a summer that lived for us,     Here is a promise     Of summers to be.