I SHALL LAUGH PURELY (with apologies to Robinson Jeffers)

1

 

Turn from that girl

Your fixed blue eyes.

Boy-slender she is,

And a face as beautiful as a hawk’s face.

History passes like falling rocks.

 

I am old as a stone,

But she is beautiful.

War is coming,

All the fine boys will go off to war.

History passes like falling rocks.

 

O that one’s to marry

Another old man;

You won’t be helped

When your tall sons go away to war.

History falls on your head like rocks.

 

Keep a straight mind

In the evil time.

In the mad-dog time

Why may not an old man run mad?

History falls like rocks in the dark,

All will be worse confounded soon.