Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/156

"UBI SUNT QUI ANTE NOS?" There all the jolly Centurions of high or low degree,

This night of nights, as in early time, foregather gloriously,—

Come back, mayhap, from Martian meads, from many an orb come back,

Full sure the cheer they cared for here this night shall have no lack;

For they know the jovial servitors have mingled a noble brew

Of the tipple men call nectarean, the pure celestial dew,

And are passing around ambrosial cakes, while the incense-clouds arise

Of something akin to those earthly fumes not even the Blest despise.

And yet—and yet—could we listen, we might o'erhear them say

They would barter a year of Aidenn to be here for a night and a day;

And if one of us yearns to follow the paths that thitherward wend—

Let him rest content,—let him have no fear,—he verily shall in the end.

136