Life of Death? + 

Is there a secret Joy, that may not weep, + 

For every flower that ends its little span, + 

For every child that groweth up to man, + 

For every captive bird a cage doth keep, + 

For every aching eye that went to sleep + 

Long ages back, when other eyes began + 

To see and know and love as now they can, + 

Unravelling God’s wonders heap by heap? + 

Or doth the Past lie ’mid Eternity + 

In charnel dens that rot and reek alway, + 

A dismal light for those that go astray, + 

A pit of foul deformity⁠—to be, + 

Beauty, a dreadful source of growth for thee + 

When thou wouldst lift thine eyes to greet the day? + 