Three Taverns: A Book of Poems

<h3> <SPAN name="jester"></SPAN> The Old King's New Jester<br/> </h3> <p>You that in vain would front the coming order<br/> With eyes that meet forlornly what they must,<br/> And only with a furtive recognition<br/> See dust where there is dust, &mdash;<br/> Be sure you like it always in your faces,<br/> Obscuring your best graces,<br/> Blinding your speech and sight,<br/> Before you seek again your dusty places<br/> Where the old wrong seems right.<br/></p> <p>Longer ago than cave-men had their changes<br/> Our fathers may have slain a son or two,<br/> Discouraging a further dialectic<br/> Regarding what was new;<br/> And after their unstudied admonition<br/> Occasional contrition<br/> For their old-fashioned ways<br/> May have reduced their doubts, and in addition<br/> Softened their final days.<br/></p> <p>Farther away than feet shall ever travel<br/> Are the vague towers of our unbuilded State;<br/> But there are mightier things than we to lead us,<br/> That will not let us wait.<br/> And we go on with none to tell us whether<br/> Or not we've each a tether<br/> Determining how fast or far we go;<br/> And it is well, since we must go together,<br/> That we are not to know.<br/></p> <p>If the old wrong and all its injured glamour<br/> Haunts you by day and gives your night no peace,<br/> You may as well, agreeably and serenely,<br/> Give the new wrong its lease;<br/> For should you nourish a too fervid yearning<br/> For what is not returning,<br/> The vicious and unfused ingredient<br/> May give you qualms &mdash; and one or two concerning<br/> The last of your content.<br/></p> <p><br/><br/><br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />