Better the end of a thing
Than the beginning thereof;
Farewell, you and caresses,
Lavendered manners of love!
I'm for the burdens and stresses:
Farewell, languid delays,
Pressed mouths pasturing,
Poems of wondrous praise!
There's no mystery brooding
Now on your excellent ways:
sunlight has gone from your hair,
Stars have recalled your gaze.
You, though eternally fair,
Lie at my heart like a stone,
All your ardor and mooding
Ranged, exploited and known.
Better the end of a thing
Than the beginning, my friend.
Better be patient than proud.
Patience! Accept the end:
Scorn what your passion avowed.
That was mere clamor and wail:
Pain is our stanchioning.
Only irresolutes fail.
Not by a God-given light,
Flaring on fates concealed --
Trial's the magic whereby
Heights of our fate are revealed.
Stifle your heart should it cry,
Hold your resentment at bay;
What is the word for to-night?
Hate, hate and away.
Turn to lost things and forget
When this spectre of wrong
Storms through a shattered defence,
Lashes your flesh with a thong.
Moan your lost innocence --
Love with ambition contending,
Love in its dying set,
Stars at the highway's ending.
All that is sacred is named,
Unknown regions are best,
Useless things I adore
Trouble me, being possessed.
Taunt me with peace no more,
Weary of home-fires tended,
These have left me ashamed,
Yearning for ways unwended.
You have become too real,
Love I so heavily rue.
All that has blossomed must die;
Only illusion is true.
Uttered thought is a lie,
Love, acknowledged, a snare;
In this dusk I will steal
Out to I know not where.
Better the placid sea-love
Than the cities of haste.
Better revolt than retract.
Better be blasted than waste;
Better the dream than the fact,
Illusions can seldom change.
Dreamers in strangeness move
Knowing nothing is strange.
First published in The Bulletin, 31 July 1924
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
Than the beginning thereof;
Farewell, you and caresses,
Lavendered manners of love!
I'm for the burdens and stresses:
Farewell, languid delays,
Pressed mouths pasturing,
Poems of wondrous praise!
There's no mystery brooding
Now on your excellent ways:
sunlight has gone from your hair,
Stars have recalled your gaze.
You, though eternally fair,
Lie at my heart like a stone,
All your ardor and mooding
Ranged, exploited and known.
Better the end of a thing
Than the beginning, my friend.
Better be patient than proud.
Patience! Accept the end:
Scorn what your passion avowed.
That was mere clamor and wail:
Pain is our stanchioning.
Only irresolutes fail.
Not by a God-given light,
Flaring on fates concealed --
Trial's the magic whereby
Heights of our fate are revealed.
Stifle your heart should it cry,
Hold your resentment at bay;
What is the word for to-night?
Hate, hate and away.
Turn to lost things and forget
When this spectre of wrong
Storms through a shattered defence,
Lashes your flesh with a thong.
Moan your lost innocence --
Love with ambition contending,
Love in its dying set,
Stars at the highway's ending.
All that is sacred is named,
Unknown regions are best,
Useless things I adore
Trouble me, being possessed.
Taunt me with peace no more,
Weary of home-fires tended,
These have left me ashamed,
Yearning for ways unwended.
You have become too real,
Love I so heavily rue.
All that has blossomed must die;
Only illusion is true.
Uttered thought is a lie,
Love, acknowledged, a snare;
In this dusk I will steal
Out to I know not where.
Better the placid sea-love
Than the cities of haste.
Better revolt than retract.
Better be blasted than waste;
Better the dream than the fact,
Illusions can seldom change.
Dreamers in strangeness move
Knowing nothing is strange.
First published in The Bulletin, 31 July 1924
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
