Page:Poems, Meynell, 1921.djvu/120

 THE UNEXPECTED PERIL

NLIKE the youth that all men say

They prize—youth of abounding blood,

In love with the sufficient day,

And gay in growth, and strong in bud;

Unlike was mine! Then my first slumber

Nightly rehearsed my last; each breath

Knew itself one of the unknown number.

But Life was urgent with me as Death.

My shroud was in the flocks; the hill

Within its quarry locked my stone;

My bier grew in the woods; and still

Life spurred me where I paused alone.

"Begin!" Life called. Again her shout,

"Make haste while it is called to-day!"

Her exhortations plucked me out,

Hunted me, turned me, held me at bay.

But if my youth is thus hard pressed

(I thought) what of a later year?

If the end so threats this tender breast,

What of the days when it draws near?

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