Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/406

 396 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

Yet, until Justice' laws be understood,

And men grown brotherly, such hopes are vain. The pest of tyrants nations need not rue, Whene'er mankind shall to themselves be true.

��TIME DISCOVERING TRUTH.

Something I seek I cannot see,

Till cruel fate shall pity me.

In cities vast, in deserts wild,

In vain I'm hunting for my child.

And now, through many thousand years,

Have mourned her loss with fruitless tears.

I've sought her north, south, v/est, and east,

But, since God made the human beast.

The girl is nowhere to be found ;

Man hath devoured her, I'll be bound.

Me, too, he would be glad to slay ;

Some I hear asking every day,

" How dost make out to kill old Time ? "

But since I've learned about the crime,

I've ground my scythe, till now 'twill reap

A hundred rascals at a sweep.

How sharp and smooth ! and bright as gold

The handle's twice as long's the old ;

The very shadow of the thing

Might lop two heads off at a fling.

Now if a man should chance to pass,

I'll send him presently to grass ;

There's none shall 'scape, whoe'er he be.

Whether a foe to Truth or me.

Yet gladly would I rest from slaughter.

If I could only find thee, daughter !

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