EXPERIENCE

LIKE Crusoe with the bootless gold we stand

Upon the desert verge of death, and say:

“What shall avail the woes of yesterday

To buy to-morrow's wisdom, in the land

Whose currency is strange unto our hand?

In life's small market they had served to pay

Some late-found rapture, could we but delay

Till Time hath matched our means to our demand.”

But otherwise Fate wills it, for, behold,

Our gathered strength of individual pain,

When Time's long alchemy hath made it gold,

Dies with us — hoarded all these years in vain,

Since those that might be heir to it the mould

Renew, and coin themselves new griefs again.