Worlds wax and wane; suns die and stars are born.
Two atoms of cosmic dust unite, cohere--
And lo the building of a world begun.
On all things--high or low, or great or small--
Earth, ocean, mountain, mammoth, midge and man,
On mind and matter--lo perpetual change--
God's fiat--stamped! The very bones of man
Change as he grows from infancy to age.
His loves, his hates, his tastes, his fancies, change.
His blood and brawn demand a change of food;
His mind as well: the sweetest harp of heaven
Were hateful if it played the selfsame tune
Forever, and the fairest flower that gems
The garden, if it bloomed throughout the year,
Would blush unsought. The most delicious fruits
Pall on our palate if we taste too oft,
And Hyblan honey turns to bitter gall.
Perpetual winter is a reign of gloom;
Perpetual summer hardly pleases more.
Behold the Esquimau--the Hottentot:
This doomed to regions of perpetual ice,
And that to constant summer's heat and glow:
Inferior both, both gloomy and unblessed.
The home of happiness and plenty lies
Where autumn follows summer and the breath
Of spring melts into rills the winter's snows.
How gladly, after summer's blazing suns,
We hail the autumn frosts and autumn fruits:
How blithesome seems the fall of feathery snow
When winter comes with merry clang of bells:
And after winter's reign of ice and storm
How glad we hail the robins of the spring.
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