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And likely to be wrecked.
And deeply as fear goes,
Having in view a good
That, clearly understood,
Comes always at great cost
And always incomplete
And sooner or later lost;
Even so, to repeat,
Our being remains sweet
Under the deepest fears,
In human hardihood.
The vision paused, then said,
Last night I heard a song
Coming through leafy air --
Though fading before long
It sings on in my head:
The earth that once made us
Being the same earth that made
The dragonfl y, the deer,
Lizard and mastodon,
Worm, leaf, stone, bright green blade,
Hill, river, and so on --
When we, in what we do
Ravage it all -- this, too,
Is a natural result
For us, the boldest one
Of all her experiments;
In which to fail, long since
We've learned is not a fault.
Experiments mostly fail.
Ours had a good long run.