Classic Poem

The gaudy, noisy, multitudinous show,
Which pleased awhile your greedy eyes and ears,
How mean and paltry all its pomp appears
Seen on a sudden in the golden glow
Of that pure light which dawned an hour ago!
And sages fain would learn from you, love's fool,
There at your feet, as pupils in your school,
What sages only think, and lovers know.

For, as the shows of life, by mere excess
Of life, almighty and all-mastering,
Are mean and paltry in the lover's eyes,
So Love himself, the wisdom of the wise,
And all, shall vanish, not in nothingness,
But in the power and splendour of the King.