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For us, though, let's not grieve --
Nor turn in treachery
On our own kind, at heart
Finding life hard to leave,
Finding it sweet to be
Even if in prospect
Only, for the most part,
As certain sages claim,
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,