Classic Poem

Sorrows have come before and have stood mute
With blind implacable masks; when the eyes have endured them
They draw sidelong and stand
At the shoulder; they never depart.

The sweetest voice has desired silence, the eyes
Have desired darkness, the passion has desired peace.
He that gave, and not asked
But for a friend's sake, has taken

One gift for himself: he gives a greater, he goes
Remembered utterly generous, constraining sorrow
Like winter sundown, splendid
Memory to ennoble our nights.

The gray mothers of rain sail and glide over,
The rain has fallen, the deep-wombed earth is renewed;
Under the greening of the hills
Gulls flock in the black furrows.

And now it is hard to believe he will not return
To be our guest in the house, nor walk beside me
Again by the Carmel river
Or on the Sovranes reef.