Classic Poem

What temptress bodied of the devil's sighs,
So termagant and tyrannous and strong,
As take thee from the flowers of Paradise —
As bring thee from the banquet and the song,

To waste the days in agony with Doubt,
To peer into the charnel-pits of Death?
God's mysteries are past all finding out.
Life's joys are fugitive as human breath.

Because the ways of God are strange and dim,
Are other things inevitably vain?
Here is a goblet, rosy to the brim,
Will wash cold sorrow from thy heart and brain.

And here are buttercups in gold attire,
Daisies, and daffodilies, and heartsease;
And, fashioned of divine, delicious fire,
Red flower-lips more wonderful than these.

And night is glorified by moon and star;
And day illumined by the sun above.
Why fret and query what our destinies are
When life is wonderful and God is Love?