PEACE

What is this Peace

That statesmen sign?

How I have sought

To make it mine.

Where groaning cities

Clang and glow

I hunted, hunted,

Peace to know.

And still I saw

Where I passed by

Discarded hearts,—

Heard children cry.

By willowed waters

Brimmed with rain

I thought to capture

Peace again.

I sat me down

My Peace to hoard,

But Beauty pricked me

With a sword.

For in the stillness

Something stirred,

And I was crippled

For a word.

There is no peace

A man can find;

The anguish sits

His heart behind.

The eyes he loves,

The perfect breast,

Too exquisite

To give him rest.

This is his curse

Since brain began.

His penalty

For being man.